Tryst
 Poetry By Rae Pater
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Hunger and Humiliation

I have holes
between my legs.
Holes of shame
where fat legs
wear the fabric threadbare.

Sometimes the holes
wear into flesh.
My penance
for the sin of gluttony.

I walk into the supermarket
past a young boy,
singin' of Jesus.
I go back the long way,
not to see
his hungry eyes.
The hopeful box
in front of him.

He looks as though
he knows
about the holes.
As if, like God,
he sees them all.

Perhaps he knows
We stand united
in our humiliation,

that no matter
how we deny our hunger
the shame
remains.

 

© Rae Pater 2002

More Poetry:
 Watching Weight
Conversations With My Father
Shampoo
Jessica Had A Baby

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Bio: Rae Pater is a New Zealand poet, and has been writing poetry seriously for about a year now. She was born in New Zealand, and has lived there all her life. She has three children and a dog called Bob. She writes: "I have always been an avid reader especially in the fantasy/fairytale genre and I find this influences my poetry a lot. Writing poetry, to me, is like tapping directly into my subconscious and writing the contents down. Reading someone else's poetry, I think, is as close as you can get to being inside someone else's head." Rae has been published in a two print anthologies, and The Press. (her local newspaper). Her online credits include WORDSPACE, MiPo, and New Zealand Poets Online.