i met you just after you started a new diet

every day you would eat only that which was related to a food memory

sometimes you would tell me the story behind your diet for the day

for example there was the day you ate a box of freddo frogs

and you told me that it was a reminder of the time you stole a box of

freddo frogs from the school cafeteria

and ate them one by one on the school bus home

other times it was easy for me to guess the memory

for example there was the time i came home and the apartment looked

like a 10 year old’s birthday and we ate rainbow cake for dinner

you also ate things that you didn’t distinctly remember

but that your parents told you they had fed you

like sweet potato mash or fish boiled in milk

i learnt a lot about your childhood by watching you eat

lots of pasta, mangoes, almonds, not much meat

we also went to quite a few average suburban restaurants

many of them had changed cuisine or ownership since you were a child

but we’d eat there anyway, which made no sense to me

mostly the new diet was healthy and conservative

but on the days when your memories

led you back to what you had once desired

the eating could become extreme and manic

there were times when you became secretive about your memories

like the day you cut up the pillow cases

into tiny pieces and swallowed them

when i asked what memory you had of eating pillow cases you replied

what do you care? this new diet is doing wonders

i look and i feel fantastic i bounce right out of bed