Page 42 - Contrast1988Spring

To Eat, or Not to Eat

To eat, or not to eat; that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the thighs to suffer
The temptations of caloric cupcakes,
Or to take arms against a world of Twinkies, .
And by willpower avoid them. To snack--to mbble--
No more--and by a nibble to way we end
The hunger, and the thousand natural calories
That chocolate is heir to! 'Tis consummation
We devoutly wish, To snack, to nibble--
To nibble--perchance to gain: ay, there's the chub!
For in that seductive cake what calories may come
When we have submitted to these mortal urges,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long diets;
For who would bear the taste of diet soda,
The salad's blandness, glasses of ice water,
the pangs of missed sundaes, the Nutrasweet,
The call of Girl Scout cookies, and the spurns
That constant dieter often takes
When he himself might quietly make
A midnight binge? Who would these fardels bear,
To starve and squirm under a weary diet,
But that the dread of something after Spring,
The bikini season, from whose revelations
No body can hide, strengthens the will,
And makes us rather bear hunger pains we have,
Than fly to the local Friendly's?
Thus summer does make determined of us all,
And thus the winter layer of cellulite
Is worn away through the endless battle,
And bodies that once were round and flabby
With this regard their bikinis display
And lose the name of chubby ...

Erica Steinacker

38

Contrast Spring 1988