it doesn't always have to be

obvious-

in fact, it usually isn't 

 

it's not a snap decision 

a sudden no, no, no more eating for me 

it takes time, 

it plans carefully

it creeps and it crawls 

it is something that sometimes

has no warning at all

 

it's a look in the mirror,

the feeling of bile that you quickly swallow down

it's the rush and the swell

of the sea in which you drown 

 

it's the image of the glamorous girls 

in those glossy magazines,

whose dieting secret is:

Oh, I didn't eat! 

 

it's the thigh gap obsession,

the latest new craze,

its the daily procession of 

thin bones and thinner lace

it's the-

 

well, it's all of these things,

and none of them at all