Delineate

by Stacy Brody

I scoop ice cream in a one-third cup 

weigh 1-oz cubes of cheese & 

count 20 peanuts in my trail mix 

 

you are (not) alarmed  

 

I am 

– have been – 

committed   

 

by age 10 

 

I read nutrition labels 

#FoodLiteracy  

on Cheerios boxes and Skippy peanut butter jars  

 

You described 

my eating  

“disordered” 

 

“disordered”, as delineated in the DSM-IV 

 

I wrote detailed meal plans to  

reduce #FoodWaste 

and did not deviate   

 

You deemed  

me “obsessive 

compulsive” 

 

the margins shift around me 

 

I operate within  

#CoffeeCulture #Foodie #YogiEats 

normal limits 

 

You ♡ 

my commitment to  

#health 

 

I do not deviate 

 

I depend on a food scale to 

brew #coffee  

and precisely portion lunch  

 

You decide 

 to fill your feed with  

#healthy  

 

meals like mine are #healthy 

 

upon visual examination  

#wellness blurs with “illness” 

I define the terms by which to live 

 

*According to Oxford Dictionaries, the second definition of delineate is to “Indicate the exact position of (a border or boundary)”. In matters of nutrition, often, there is no exact position for the border between wellness and illness. Wherever that border is, or has been, the media landscape continues to blur it.