FicWad

Sticks and Stones


Everyone has heard the rhyme,
Words from a much, much older time.
When a playground fight was just silly words,
Unthought names flying from young lips like birds.
Nowadays, it means so little,
And when people say it, it's usually brittle.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones,
But names will never hurt me."

Well, whoever made up that rhyme was wrong,
For a stone's impact is short, but a word's is long.
They range from mild to bad to worse,
And the result of some end up in a hearse.

"Sticks and stones may break her bones,
But names will never hurt me."
That's her mantra as she sits, all alone,
Abandoned, dumped, left like a dry chicken bone.
She's desperate and crying, eyes stinging and red,
Digging talon-like nails into skin till it bled.
"Fat and ugly, ugly and fat,"
She repeats quietly, the words hitting like bats.
And so to the toilet, she quietly slips,
Broken little sobs leaving broken little lips.
Locked in a stall, she whispers in a voice so tinny:
"I want to be pretty and pretty is skinny."
For days upon days, she refuses to eat,
She faints, one day, something she cannot beat.
They take her to hospital, the world of white walls,
They ask her when she eats - if she eats at all.
Head hung low, she whispers "I'm fat",
To which the doctor replies "we're NOT having that.
We all have our horrors and our demons to fight,
Yours is a sandwich, into which you must bite.
You will not gain weight - at least just not yet.
But eat it - you will feel better, I bet."
With wide, doe-like eyes and a whimper of 'fine',
She gobbles down that sandwich. It tastes divine.
She realizes she had an eating disorder,
The one scientists call anorexia nervosa.
She looks at the mirror with a wide, open smile,
Yelling out "I'M FIXED! I'M FIXED - EVEN IF IT DID TAKE A WHILE!"

Ten years from then, she's a successful musician.
If you ever get the change, give her CD a listen.
She's never gone back to her old friend, Ana,
It's definitely a good thing. She's better off without her.