My last taste
of you melted
lean and bitter
like the dark
chocolate
I brought home
from Germany,
wrapped in gold foil.
I can make candy
last a long time.
My German
mother taught me:
take tiny bites,
close your mouth,
no chewing.
Leave something for
later. It’s how she
survived those
lean and bitter years,
those hiding-in-
the-cellar years,
those care-package
years. Some nights
I confess everything:
that I crave enormous
portions, that I gorge
myself when no one’s
around, the sweat
and distress of my body
full disclosure.
I whisper it to the wall
like a small but
significant crime:
I’m hungry, so
hungry,
so hungry.
Erica Goss served as Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, CA, from 2013-2016. She is the author of Night Court (winner of the 2016 Lyrebird Award), Wild Place, and Vibrant Words: Ideas and Inspirations for Poets. She is co-founder of Media Poetry Studio, a poetry-and-film camp for teen girls. Her poems, reviews, and articles appear widely.