This You Must Do

Strap sticks of butter to your thighs feel them sliding and greasy— take them off again and revisit how you lost that pound.

Tuck a bag of flour under your shirt artisan flour in a generous cotton sack— the flour loose and soft and white then take it off and lose five pounds again.

The entire world has been weighed, measured, calibrated; props are readily available.

A forty-pound bag of dog kibble slides in my arms and the weight shifts suddenly I heft the bag higher and dream of the day of the fortieth poem.