This ode of regret began with an all too common experience that would easily scar anyone for the rest of their lives: being fat-shamed by a relative, in the author’s case, her mother. It spoke to readers about how it feels to be deeply sorry for all you’ve done to your body. She speaks of all that her body has been put through, more specifically what she has put her body through. She apologizes for wishing her body were thinner, and later on, that it didn’t even exist in the first place. She apologizes for her anxiety and getting her lungs so panicked she couldn’t breathe. The author paints a picture with her words that conveys, unfortunately, reality for many young girls today.

The monster that is beauty norms of society has no bounds, whether in age, gender, or sexual identification. Today in our society, this doubt about how your body should look compared to commonplace reality lingers within us for years to come, as is captured by this poem. There is a certain eerie essence to this poem for readers hanging onto every last line, waiting to see just how much she’ll share about her experience. Towards the end, she ends it with a realization she has come to. Her body is more than flesh and blood, it’s something that is incredible and beautiful, it’s an adventure she lives in.