In Memoriam

I, too, got straight A’s 
and refused to say the c-word 

in playgrounds and graveyards.
I, too, added the noun OREO

to my crosswords because of its vowel-
consonant ratio. I, too, hoarded

books on breatharianism
and read them like prescriptions.

I, too, Tipp-Exed the letter C 
from a library dictionary: caramel, carb, 

cake, cake eater, cakewalk. I, too, 
survived 22 winters without a taste

of hot cocoa. I, too, felt ribs
poke against the skin of somebody 

I couldn’t recognise. 
I, too, saw grey eyes, puffy gums,

skeleton face. I, too, smuggled 
aspartame into treatment centres. 

I, too, won an elocution 
competition but failed to articulate 

“help me” properly.

number 

the day starts to wear
piecemeal & catabolic
like a number split
to the smallest primes 

the digits you chop 
add up to the food 
you factor

mirrors reflect zero
wheeze & shuffle round off 
the shock value

bare torso selfies
remind you that a diet
is repeated subtraction

scales mark minus infinity
a mass with no body
repels gravity

why did you convert
matter into thin air

Italo Ferrante (he/him) earned a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Warwick. He is currently undertaking an MA in Creative Writing at Lancaster University. To date, his work has been selected for publication by Train River, Nymphs & Thugs, Dreich, Queer Zine, Flash Journal, Reinvention, Poetry Salzburg, Impossible Archetype, Cardiff Review, and Orchard Lea Press.