Summary:

Cora is a fourteen year old girl who lives in Oklahoma, probably during the early part of this century. She has had to assume the work of child and home care after the death of her mother earlier in the year. As she learns these new tasks she compares herself to her mother.

Her worst fear is of butchering time, when she has to hear the squeals of the pig being butchered and smell the fat as it is made into lye soap. After she carries food to her father and brothers in the field, her father pursues her and rapes her, telling her she is the woman in the family now. At the end of the story, butchering time is no longer her greatest fear.

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Summary:

A young woman, Rachel, denies that she has an eating disorder, despite the concern of her boyfriend, Taylor, and her therapist, Karina. We see her complex system of denial, self-control, and isolation as the people who care about her most become more concerned and frustrated. Finally, through the confrontation of a beloved former professor, her therapist, and through meeting a physician whom she trusts for the first time, she begins to recognize her problem. She concludes, "I am only half here, and I don't know where I've gone."

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Summary:

An obese woman describes the advantages of being obese.

She is a fortress, strong, implacable, self sufficient, impervious to famine and weakness. She is a goddess, powerful, with the ability to crush anyone who does not take her seriously. Underlying the strong language of this poem is the reality of this woman's isolation. She is isolated from men and women alike, so afraid of being harmed by others that she chooses to be so threatening that no one will come near her. Her source of power is also her source of pain.

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Summary:

A teenager with a large, classic, Jewish nose, decides to get a "nose job." She has seen how her aunt blossomed after getting her nose fixed, and believes her life would improve too. It does. But as she grows older, and begins to appreciate her Jewish identity as well as the need to learn to look inside, not outside, for one's personal value, she wonders about the rightness of her action. Clearly, her self esteem improved; she did learn to like herself for the first time. Still, if she had a daughter with a big nose who wanted to be fixed, what would she advise her?

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Summary:

The narrator of this poem describes all the kinds of things that disrupt your life when you experience PMS (premenstrual syndrome): impatience, dissatisfaction, irritability, temper, feeling overwhelmed. You notice that others avoid you, your doctor tries to treat your symptoms, and everyone sympathizes with those around you for how difficult you are making their lives. In the end, though, how does a woman know that her PMS-related perceptions aren’t really the accurate ones, that her temporary unhappiness isn’t really justified, or that her everyday comforts aren’t illusions?

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Summary:

A young woman with chronic pain associated with menses seeks sterilization, but the doctors refuse, saying it would be unethical to sterilize someone so young. Yet, this woman has known from a young age that she would not be a good parent, has little interest in ever being a parent, and feels that a parent should have ample time to be wonderful with children all the time. She simply feels she cannot take on this level of responsibility. Even though the doctor says she would have to live with her sterilization decision forever, she knows that the converse is true: having children is something she would have to live with forever, too.

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Summary:

A middle aged woman goes backpacking for the first time in 14 years after losing her leg in an automobile accident. As she recounts the excursion, with its difficulties and exhilaration, she reflects on the ways her life was changed by losing her leg, and the emotional journey she has taken since the accident. She concludes by thinking about how to find power despite her vulnerability, how to adjust and accommodate, but never compromise.

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Summary:

Mrs. Seaver writes about what it is like living in a nursing home. She writes cogently about the attitudes and behavior of staff, loneliness, lack of privacy, and her day to day experiences as a disabled 84 year old nursing home resident. The contrast between her former life and still-evident wit and intellect, and the way she is treated and diminished in her current environment is profound.

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Summary:

The narrator, a cultured, educated man who happens to require a wheelchair, describes the start of his relationship with Marcia, who is beautiful, refined, and equally well educated. The narrator tries to impress Marcia with his personality and intellect, and the sparks between them are obvious. But all the while he grows more frustrated and embarrassed at the lack of accessibility of toilet facilities during their date. He argues that his disability should not diminish his capacity to conduct a normal conversation and that getting access to toilet facilities should not necessitate a public discussion of his need to urinate.

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Summary:

Nathan was born with a strawberry birthmark on his chest, which both repels and comforts him. Sometimes it is an intricate and unique part of himself that sets him apart from other people and has the power to make him feel special. On the other hand, its very strangeness makes it repulsive to others, especially to women. At his girlfriend’s urging he decides to have the birthmark removed. Despite his doubts, he goes through with the surgery only to realize he has made a big mistake. He blames his girlfriend for his decision.

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