Mandatory Sentence: Gluten Free

Mandatory Sentence: Gluten Free

(A Poem)

I have been diagnosed a suspected celiacs.

Suspected sounds peculiar but I refused

To be subjected to being the subject of

Further testing. My mother cannot imbibe,

It makes me regurgitate the protein. I’ll choose

To believe I’m positive in my diagnosis, purely

Due to feeling better when I don’t giving-in to the

Sweet tooth lurking within. I’ll choose gluten

Sensitive positive versus hell scoped invasion.

What they forgot to tell me when I chose,

A gluten free lifestyle is I’ll feel alone. More

Alone than lonely. Alone in my decision,

Rejected as strange. I’ll be the odd piece of

Person in any room. I’m now the freak.

A zoo animal prepared to face an inquisition

Of my outlandish need to nourish myself

Appropriately. Temptation is now going to

Sit at my side doing what she does best

Tempting me towards taste and desire.

She’ll attempt to sway me back towards

Her land of delicious misery and sweet

Suffering. I’ll be strong and resist her.

I’ll miss dearly the delight of giving into

Her. Saying no will be my biggest challenge.

How it feels to be gluten free in a glutenous

World: A display of sharing is no longer

A restoration of my faith in humanity

But the makings of torture. A potluck

With all my favorite enemies lined up

And staring me down. Ash fills my mouth.

It absorbs any moisture and leaves me

breathless and wanting. I’m unsure if the

Sponge sucking the space from my throat

Is jealousy or fighting the impulse to imbibe.

I know I must practice constant will power,

Be good to my insides. I cannot further

Inflame the damage years of giving-in has done.

A little scream slips out of my lips as a hiccup.

Everything I can’t touch surrounds me.

I hold my breath scared of what the

smell brings with it. Desire, the insatiable kind.

Apple Out,

K. Sullivan



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