"Signs You May Have an Eating Disorder" by Barbara Daniels

White clay you chew throughbefore you get back to your car.Hair. Dice that clatteracross a long table. Paper.Paint chips. Drywall. Dirt.Burnt matches. An herbyou touch to your lips,thinking fennel, thinking anise,but it is hemlock. You yankmushrooms out of the rotand stuff them into your mouth.A spider spins protein into cogsand wands. You hear gypsy mothlarvae chewing. Look, eveninglike a plateful of cake.Chocolate light, cool air.Lightning flickers.A possum skitters. Nowyou can open your jewelry boxand take out a tipped dishof lumpy pearls formedin gold-lipped oysters. Andyour favorites, cultured pearlssmooth and sour as lemon drops.

Barbara Daniels’ book Rose Fever was published by WordTech Press and her chapbooks Black Sails, Quinn & Marie, and Moon Kitchen by Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press. Her poetry has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review, and many other journals. She received three Individual Artist Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Anita Wong is a contemporary American Chinese Impressionist painter. She received her B.A. (Honors) in Graphic Design from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, and her M.F.A. and M.A. in Digital Photography and Digital Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art. Anita currently teaches painting at UC Berkeley Extension fine art department in San Francisco, California. Find more of Anita's work on her website.