A Ballade of the Bulge
I'm getting fat, this is no lie.
I wish by eating I'd weigh less.
By looking for an alibi
I try to hide my foolishness.
It seems my lack of willingness
to use control with food and drink
Is bringing me to great distress.
It's pushing me towards the brink.
Alas, I do identify
myself with those who so obsess
about their need to satisfy
a hunger that is limitless.
Where is the pill that can suppress
an urge so huge (at least I think)
it wins the lead in viciousness;
it's pushing me towards the brink.
I follow fads, because I try
to learn to cut away excess.
The books on dieting I buy
but reading them brings no success,
instead, a fearful emptyness.
My future seems as black as ink.
My choice does not yield happiness.
It's pushing me towards the brink.
Prince, you're behind this loneliness
that makes me drown, that makes me sink.
It seems no power I posess.
You're pushing me towards the brink!
� 2004 Anne Maarit Ghan
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This poem was a 2004 winner of Formal Poetry Contest in Canada + received an Honorable Mention in 2005 from ByLine Magazine.
Contemporary Formal Poetry Contest
Note: A ballade is not a ballad.
A ballade has three 8-line stanzas rhyming ababbcbC, followed by a 4-line envoi rhyming bcbC, the same rhymes being used throughout.
The capital C's indicate the refrain.
It was customary for the poet to address the envoi to his patron, often royalty.
Today it is almost always addressed to a Prince, generally understood to be the Prince of Darkness.