“Anorexic Annie”

Your sister draws nothing

but stick figures,

boasts that she’s an

artist, claims that each

is truly human:

Letter O

a bulging head, dis-

proportionate—

our brains are

most important, after all;

its torso either L

in lower case

or possibly capital I—

it depends on the

level of pressure

that you place upon

the lead;

the legs each slant of

A, always far apart,

as if a virgin

yearning sex;

the arms a stroke

of V as though in Pentecostal

prayer, perhaps her

supplication

for a mate.

They called her

scraggy pencil

in Creative Arts, sandwiched

in the morning

between Calculus

& her lunch,

scant as it may have

been,

said they couldn’t

decipher her body

from the 6H shaft

she held, that if Annie

had been thinner

she wouldn’t need a rubber,

eraser

she would murmur

out of earshot,

depicting someone

that she’d swear was

more than bones.

Andreas Gripp

November 9, 2025

RF Image