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"Sizing Up" by Heather Ann Pulido



I step on a scale

and the numbers rise and rise and rise


like my marks 

in primary, in secondary, in tertiary school.


I wrap a measuring tape

around and around and around my waist


like the borrowed tapis I wore

to a dance performance, to an awards ceremony.


I look in the mirror

and watch my arms and thighs and calves

grow fatter and wider and richer


like my pile of plaques

like my once-starved purse.


When I enter a room

of faces familiarly strange,

they survey me from scalp to sole.


They shake their heads

and say I’ve fallen short

of the scale, of the tape,

of the glass, of the gaze.


This is the one time

I flunked a test.


This is the only time

a high score

has failed me.


This is the first time

I found that

numbers only

bind my infinity

at the waist.




Heather Ann Pulido is an indigenous and bisexual author from Baguio City, Philippines. Her work is in Moss Puppy and Sage Cigarettes. She has been nominated twice for the Best of the Net. She recently joined JAKE as a poetry editor. Her debut poetry chapbook "Coming Home to Myself" (Naked Cat Publishing) was released in September 2023.

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