Overweight,

slightly

bursting apart at the seams,

though once as slim

as an overworked rake,

and slender enough to be lean

and hungry.

 

Still got hair,

lots of it cascading down my back,

though thin from being dyed

since I was seventeen,

going grey early, a subsequence

of the disease remaining undiagnosed,

refusing to have it cut,

I never liked short hair on myself,

I always looked like a thug

when I looked in the mirror

that hung askew in the draught-filled hall.