Lisa Kwong: TWO POEMS
_________________________________________________
THE PROBLEM WITH BEING A FAT GIRL
Boys ask for dates,
but only because they want to mock you.
The fake suitor approaches,
grin dripping with malice,
behind him, his posse
ready to snicker.
They want you to say yes,
see your pudgy face
swallow your brief smile,
then flood with tears
as they oink at you
and hit you on the head
with pencils.
When you’re with friends,
you can never say aloud
“I need to lose weight”
without them being silent, awkward
like the squirrel contemplating
how to leap across a river
without drowning.
Or someone will say
“Oh you’re not that big.”
The girl half your size
can say she’s fat, and she will be
showered with consolation
and complimented on how she is pretty
just the way she is.
Your family constantly laments
losing the pixie version of you,
“What happened? You used to be so cute!”
Aunts ask your weight
and pinch your jiggly arm
as if it were a slab of meat
ready for slicing.
Your parents tell you
that you could be so beautiful
if you’d only lose that second chin
and big bellybutton,
not knowing they’ve made you
feel ugly as a skunk.
But even after all this fuss,
they still fill up your dinner plate
and give you an extra chicken leg.
© 2009 by Lisa Kwong
_________________________________________________
SEVENTEEN SYLLABLES OF FAME
Camera flashes,
artificial stars gone like
fame’s lusty glory.
Rumors, ripped magic
carpets, crowd the air, their threads
twisting and turning.
Lonely man takes night
walks, hopes for conversation,
goes home empty-souled.
Gossip, words with black
wings flying across blue skies,
sears friendship’s clasped hands.
Slave to fame can’t see
ghosts creeping in the hallways
of his lonely heart.
Lies, fishnets of hurt,
flood life until the truth is
shipwrecked, buried, forgotten.
A cracked mirror, fame
shows him the scum, flashes love,
then takes it away.
© 2009 by Lisa Kwong
_________________________________________________
Lisa Kwong received a B.A. in English from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Her poems have appeared in Ishmael Reed’s Konch, www.news.appstate.edu, Floyd County Moonshine, and The Sleuth, a magazine dedicated to all things Nancy Drew. As a poetry ambassador, she has organized
National Poetry Month readings since 2004.
A student of classical clarinet, Lisa Kwong
currently lives, works, and writes in the New River Valley of Virginia.
_________________________________________________
October 16th, 2009 at 7:10 am
Thank you for sharing your work with me, Lisa. I’m very proud of you!
October 17th, 2009 at 4:13 am
Wonderful syllabic work, Lisa. And I appreciate the honesty of your poems so much. Thank you for these!
October 19th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
It’s so great to read your work here!
October 21st, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Thank you for sharing these. Very honest and insightful. Tom and I are proud of your accomplishment.
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:58 am
Dear Lisa,
Thank you for keeping me on your list for all these years. Your work is edgy, evocative. The images are terribly powerful. I’m so glad you are out there in the world, doing one of the things you do so well, and, I hope, LOVING IT!
Love to you,
Susan
October 24th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Lisa,
Congratulations! I’m quite proud of you and appreciate you sharing your work. It’s very exciting to learn of your success, though I’m NOT surprised!
Dr. J
November 13th, 2009 at 5:52 am
Lisa,
I just read THE PROBLEM WITH BEING A FAT GIRL and was wondering how you could write a poem about me without ever having spoke to me about my life. Of course you know I meant that last sentence to be funny. However, the sentiment is sincere. I ‘lived’ every line of that poem and want to thank you so much for putting it into the words that I have never been able to. Beautifully truthful.
Your Friend from Canton,
Diana