Most do not realize that
they have swallowed you up
today along with their breakfast
and that you are their favorite cereal
Yours is a deceptive brand
claiming to have enough
servings of vitamins
while it is really only
heaps of sodium
Sometimes your sugar
thickens my tongue
so that when my father
says I am a killjoy and
my brother sneers and
calls me a lesbian for choosing
to learn amongst girls
and only girls
I say nothing
They say you are less in
stock nowadays but
as I amble down the supermarket
aisle I see enough of you
leering out at me
to last another twenty years
You are not as rare as they think
And even so, people have eaten
enough of you so that
you sheath the stomach lining
as though they were born with
you as a part of their bodies
In the way gum stays inside
the body for days
you reside for lifetimes
You have made mascots of men
grinning like wolves on the TV
screens and on the colorful boxes
their words as lingering
as the taste of you in their
mouths
Women, too, feed you to their
daughters, foisting spoons
through parted lips
and murmuring your slogans
like a mantra, like a lullaby
I don’t enjoy discussing my
distaste for your chalky
aftertaste because many refuse
to believe in your effects
Suddenly I become the antagonist
and because I wear dresses
the purveyors assume I swallow
you up as well and don’t
look at your contents label
when I’m actually just
buying ingredients from
the grocery store to
manufacture a brand
that doesn’t make me gag
