NO WAY TO LOSE
by Sherry S.   

I visit a doc on a rock
in the Pacific.
She loves her patients,
says they're terrific.
Some are lethargic,
more than they might be,
haul extra weight,
and, very much like me,
can't help but hate

scales.  Why she
has two is that a few
must balance on both.
Doc carefully notes
what their girth hides
from their view,
then gets her tape
to illustrate
a healthier shape.

One supersized lady,
whom Doc describes
but does not name,
suffers our malady.
She could be two of me
and copes in vain
with cracked, inflamed,

continents.
Doc claims they dwarf
my islands.
I see us morph
into planets
that constantly
shed terrain.

Losing ourselves,
we should shrink, I think,
but Doc blinks
when I mention legerdemain,
and kind as she is,
won't alter the number
my indolent planet has gained.

*****