Wrestling Bears
for N.T-B.

turn my back and she gets fat

turn back and there she is
too large almost to get my arms about

too much weight for me
to lift her naked to bed

I'd been gone a week or was it two
and this transformation

what, I wonder, was she feasting on
feeding on
with greedy eyes or greedy mind

or grapes and plums
and what all else

ackee, codfish
cheese arriving in tins
her aunt would have sent

what else
McDonald's french-fries
Fish Fry conch salad
Bamboo Shack crack conch

need I hire a detective
to discover what she's been imbibing

Heineken Beers or Kalik
or Twin Brother's daiquiris

what I have for her, my sweet,
has so few calories
provides exercise as well

I shall have to help her
sweat off what she's added

how many rounds of wrestling bare
to get her into shape

to have her looking like she did
when we met

before motherhood commenced
and letting go

once sleek as a dolphin
now big as a whale

won't want to have to roll her
off the beach back into the water

to save her suffocating
under her own weight


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2009
4:37 p.m. 28.04.09