Last night, I ate a pint of Ben & Jerry's 

Chocolate Fudge Brownie in seven 

minutes, 1,040 calories. To focus, I chew 

gum, three pieces, and when sleep 

comes, I grind my teeth. A mouth 

guard won't solve my problems. 

Piano and guitar aren't for me, I bite 

sax mouthpiece and smoke oboe reed, 

flick my tongue against the wood 

staccato. Swallow. Still you force 

it down further, tell me, I eat 

a lot for a skinny girl.  

Emma DePanise is a creative writing student at Salisbury University. She has poems in The Saunterer and has received the Whall Honors Award for Writing Excellence.