Eating At Midnight Poem by Paula Glynn

The full fridge beckons
The clock saying it midnight
The comfortable bed forgotten
Even with its tempting
Fluffy white duvet cover
And sleep inducing pillows

She steps onto the bedroom floor
Looking at the moonlight
Shining from the empty window
Her heart as empty
As her yearning stomach
Determined to go without food

The small light in the kitchen
Is turned on, illuminating
Her pale face and hungry mouth
Thinking about the jokes
Her weight makes everyone say
No realization of the emotional pain

Her large and curvy body
A curse and point of ridicule
Born to be fat and ugly
Born to be mocked: an ugly duckling
Those others jeering with scorn
Her crying heart bruised and torn

Her close friends tell her
That these people are best ignored
That they are just empty and bored
With no value of their own selves
Their own struggles the same
They too feeling the pressure

Feeling the shame
Feeling the neverending pain
Looking for a scapegoat:
Someone to torture
Someone to blame
But she feels heartbroken

The food in the fridge devoured
Soon the kitchen scoured
No evidence of the binge
And the necessary purge
Vomiting up food a vital urge
No one to know her secret

But she becomes thinner
Turning into a winner
Now always being praised
Now apparently out of that cage
Free of the curse that is being fat
And friends that did lack

Whether people find out
Her secret habit
The binge and purge
She is a victim of society
Who declares the thin
To be the ones that always win

But she has a heart of gold
In spite of what they stole:
What being fat made happen
The fear of fat severe
But people do have ears
The therapist to understand

Everything they hear
And teach us a way
Out of soul devastating fear
Our pain obvious and clear
As our eyes rain tears
Help the therapist does provide:

For those with eating disorders
Are never alone
And have nothing to hide.