By Eliot Jacobson
I like to eat almond butter and
raisin sandwiches.
There’s a good reason for the word butter—
the fat content is listed at 26 percent.
Years ago, when I was
thirty pounds heavier and pre-diabetic
I promised my doctor I would lose weight and
get six-pack abs.
I told her,
I’m gonna look like
Clint Eastwood!
When I go for my annual physical
I wear
shorts, a t-shirt, no socks,
get a haircut, fast for a day,
take laxatives,
skip my morning coffee.
When she measures my blood pressure
and pulse I hold my breath and visualize:
Saturday morning,
junior league at Matador Bowl.
Mom drops me off at
9 AM, gives me 35 cents
to buy a snack.
I bowl 155. The league
gives me a patch.
143 pounds, 110/60, that’s great! she says,
and look at those abs!
That’s enough worshiping,
I’d say.
Eliot Jacobson is a retired professor of mathematics and computer science who has a lifelong love affair with poetry. He has published several poems over the years but considers himself to be more of an affectionate spectator than a writer himself. Also by this poet: "Shopping for Godot"