by Roxanne Hoffman
To combat the sticky problem of fat
many have taken the matter to the mat,
pumping and pressing to get back in shape,
while others take refuge in black and drape.
Some with the latest diet plan still embraced
have failed every fad to whittle their waist.
Others with tummies stapled, teeth wired shut,
will undergo the knife to narrow their gut.
BUT NOT JACK.
Jack had this uniquely freaky technique
and within weeks redesigned his physique:
He pasted the chiseled image of a torso divine
to the mirror beneath his own capacious chin line.
Each morning with a wave to his grafted hybrid
and a clearer vision of the new man ahead,
Jack chanted his mantra: Make it happen.
And found the power to heal from within.
At the breakfast table to his delight
Jack was incapable of more than a bite.
Later as he raced to catch a fleeting bus
Jack slowed down thinking what’s all the fuss?
With a bounce in his stride, he walked all the way,
Arriving refreshed recharged to start his workday.
Chanting his mantra: Make it happen.
Exercise is my discipline.
You see mind over matter is the only way.
Set your mind’s sights so your body can obey.
Forget all the diets, think good nutrition!
Power Juice your way into condition!
I think about this moment in life and what I am going to do.
Remember: your body is your slave; it works for you.
Jack pranced through his daily exercise routines,
on the forerunners of today’s exercise machines.
Without fear of the tape measure or of the scale
Jack’s body was no longer his master to rail.
He realized his vision of washboard abs,
had battled the bulge and conquered his flab
Everything depends on circulation!
Make it happen! Exercise is my discipline.
Roxanne Hoffman worked on Wall Street, now answers a patient hotline for a New York home healthcare provider. Her words can be found on and off the net in such journals as Amaze: The Cinquain Journal, Clockwise Cat, Danse Macabre, The Fib Review, Hospital Drive, Lucid Rhythms, Mobius: The Poetry Magazine, The Pedestal Magazine, and Shaking Like A Mountain; the indie flick Love And The Vampire; and the anthologies The Bandana Republic: A Literary Anthology by Gang Members and their Affiliates (Soft Skull Press), Love After 70 (Wising Up Press), and It All Changed In An Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure (Harper Perennial). She and her husband own the small press, Poets Wear Prada.
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