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Starve yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n I sit on my bed eating leftover soup <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n George Helder<\/strong> is a student at the University of Gloucestershire. He has published poetry in the university magazine, \u2018Show Don\u2019t Tell\u2019;\u00a0the anthology, \u2018Reflections\u2019;\u00a0and for the 2016 Cheltenham Poetry Festival\u00a0flash fiction event, \u2018Life, Death, and Other Things\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Starve yourself I sit on my bed eating leftover soup from microwaved tupperware to stave off a dizzy spell. The plastic is discoloured from re-heating baked beans. I use a teaspoon so it takes longer, takes more mouthfuls. It\u2019s a trick I learned. My mother taught me with her hesitancy and pots […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[136,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-poetry-picks","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14463"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14466,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14463\/revisions\/14466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nfrom microwaved tupperware to stave
\noff a dizzy spell. The plastic is discoloured
\nfrom re-heating baked beans.
\nI use a teaspoon so it takes
\nlonger, takes more mouthfuls.
\nIt\u2019s a trick I learned. My mother
\ntaught me with her hesitancy and pots
\nof sugar-free jelly and not much else.
\nI tell myself it\u2019s because I\u2019m poor. I\u2019ll treat
\nmyself next pay check with chocolate,
\ntry to keep it, only eat it one square
\nat a time and brush my teeth straight
\naway to forget the sour aftertaste.
\nCan I call in sick at work because
\nI\u2019m hungry? I eat lunch in the refectory
\nto disguise I won\u2019t eat later.
\nIn the evening, I dissolve
\nvitamins in a glass of water.
\nIt\u2019s healthy, I say. It\u2019s healthy.
\nI\u2019m healthy.<\/p>\n