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"The Irony in Feeling Small and Seeing a Shrink" by Nicholas Grooms



Tried and true fashions never seem to be in

not on catwalks or clothed mannequins 

a juice cleanse and diet pill racket

spamming your inbox and cluttering your mind

keeping their eyes on your obvious faults 

imploring you to snap “before and after” pictures

so you can linger on results 

we hire therapists and life coaches 

for stress management 

finding the obvious irony in feeling small

and having to see a shrink 


I thought to myself… 


            “I enjoy laying on the couch at home, 

     so why not lay upon a strangers 

                                    fragmenting words from a mind so clutteres

                                           It's usually just devoid of motivation 

                                                 or resting in the gutter” 


Mutter these fragments in bold italic shards

soft spoken, feeling hard to say 

got a sadness circa 1990-something 

never confronted


“I feel about this tall, doc 

and I just can't seem to keep this weight off”


He recommends a dietician 

and some cardiovascular hogwash

but I am speaking of the weight upon my shoulders

and the burdens I bear

picking my poisons like ripened fruit

then binging until my shirt starts to swell,

Hey, fruit is healthy, right?

“A bowl of Apple Jacks a day

keeps my therapist paid.” 


...I think this to myself and I smirk.


Everything he says feels sugar coated

processed is this food for thought 

an overweight man feeling lesser than 

paying someone else’s mortgage 

with my deep down agony 


“Ope, that’s all time we have for this session

we’ll revisit this next week

until then just do those exercises for your grief

watch what you eat, and take a handful of these”



I’m left wishing my body could be 

half as small as these appointments 

make me feel

oh, the irony in feeling small

and seeing a shrink




Nicholas Grooms is a proud father, poet, author and musician hailing from Garden City, Kansas. He has contributed to periodicals such as Midsummer Dream House, Verse Libre Quarterly and Southwest Review, but is best known for his songwriting work with the Kansas City Chiefs. He currently resides in Austin, TX.

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