You Took Everything I Could Live Without

Anonymous

PART I I want to shrink away I can feel myself becoming emaciated Fading to a fainter, paler translucent woman Whisper of myself

I will shrink all of it for you Body, mind and spirit Until there is nothing left For you to love or neglect or defile

PART II Finally alone In the room which has seen too much of us Lying on the floor which held me before you did When I was full

The bed still smells of you by the way The linens have held on to your scent and the mattress your shape Much like I did Your presence is resilient to your absence

The sheets will be laundered tomorrow The museum cleared out The gallery emptied The sheets will smell of bleach tomorrow

PART III I undress in the dark Naked before my mirror’s eyes His gaze illuminated gently by sparse streetlights I see your gaze through mine constantly

With your eyes I see the object of your lust: A silhouette Empty, vague, and barely defined – shape alone In darkness I can see all the parts you wanted

He will devour her shape and form The silhouette is all She would give him more if he were hungry still His appetite is sated by the silhouette

PART IV The object is left then Without her shape and form Her bed, his Her skin, his

The silhouette has become familiar And the object has nothing left of worth to captivate him The body has been consumed She can keep everything else

Other objects too Gifted you their silhouettes And you devoured them as well As if you’d never been fed before

PART V You told me your appetite was sated That my shape was sufficient My body fulfilling That I was enough – a nice girl

My silhouette and its contents were not enough There is less of me now than before you My body is an exhibit in your museum Forever subject to your male gaze