the bottom line

I remember plump pullets—
breasts, thighs, floured and peppered,
sizzling in heavy iron skillets
black from generations
of hunger satisfied.
Their fragrance, enveloping my youthful body
as smoothly as a caress of
cream gravy on
mashed potatoes,
defined in satisfying comfort
the breadth of my mother’s love.

Years of maternal affection
steaming from soft buttered centers
of delicately browned biscuits
left a legacy
midlife’s body cannot deny.
I wince at mirrors’
stark assessments
of the inherited roundness
of my mother’s frame.
Pliant flesh cascades
from soft Southern shoulders,
fills double D cups and
creeps, ungirdled, over
a well-nourished belly toward
my thighs, historical apex of my girth;
while my waist, focus of girlish pride,
is but a memory.

“Thin thighs in six weeks
and a flat belly
in a single summer!”
Slick magazines’ claims
fail to arouse me like the call of a crimson strawberry shortcake;
and a brisk walk on a sultry summer night will never match the joy I feel
slipping a cool spoon into
the crown of heavy cream
caressing those luscious berries.

I know the risks of
indulging in the moment.
Life’s retributions for
sins of the flesh, weakly countered by sporadic attempts
to reframe love as exercise,
admonish and annoy me.
I make excuses.
I am a product of my family.
My mother’s love embodied tradition
broader than the backsides of generations of our women who lived fully, freely,
and well into old age.

But I have a choice.

Nancy Jane Earnest, MFA, MA, of Elizabethton, Tennessee, has a full life as an artist, life coach, writer, and musician. Her personal creativity workshops offer unique opportunities to explore life’s complexities through arts-related experiences. Visit her website at [arts-n-earnest.com], or contact her at (423) 773-1919.