awk! I feel so awful when I'm too busy to write. So I made some time. Right here: time!

Trouble with Meat

bella spends two hours at the dinner table

chewing, chewing
…….--- it won’t go down

…….-- a beige paste
she can’t swallow …….-- she can
…… feel tendons …… strings …… rubber cement
…….-- inside it

when her mother looks at her own empty plate
and sighs

…….----- bella takes thumb and forefinger
pull out the mass ……- soft as flesh ……. pink and brown
…….-- it might have tentacles
…….------- the texture like cardboard and sand paper

her mother won’t
……. leave her chair…….-- till bella's through

she doesn’t…….-- understand
…….-- i can’t

her own meatloaf …….-- limp asparagus
limpid pool of butter …….-- finished
as fast as she could shovel
her eyes on bella …….-- bright …….-- foreign
like some strange plant

bella hears her friends outside
Lisa and Gordie discussing a new style of four square
…….----- then the red ball bounces……. with that hollow

…….-------appetizing ping