April 2020

bio

art by leigh white

    Eric Lawson is the author of three poetry chapbooks: Lady, Control Your Cats, Now With More Ewoks, and 405, as well as the comedic collections Jackassery, and Medusa Coils: 20 Twisted Monologues. He is the winner of the Ring of Fire Best Short Screenplay Award at the Los Angeles Neo-Noir Film Festival. Firstly, Mr. Lawson resides in Laguna Niguel, California and is writing this bio in the third person, but is usually the last to know.

Scenes from Bulimia

She swears this will be the last time.
Just like she did the first time.
And the time after that.
And the time after that.
She swears the vomiting helps,
Makes her feel less weighted down,
Less burdened, more graceful.

She swears the boys will notice her now.
Because rich boys don't like poor fat girls.
And in the mirror she sees only shame.
"Why can't you get skinny faster, bitch?"
She repeats through bitter tears.
She purges her stomach again because
She want to feel less like herself now.

She swears this will be the last time.
The last time that her daughter finds her

Unceremoniously passed out on the bathroom floor

yet again, nose bleeding,
Puke drying on her new silk blouse.
The silk blouse her daughter bought for her

booze & cocaine fueled 50th birthday.
The daughter she says she's doing all this

purging, primping, and man trading up for.
The daughter whose mother is becoming

a stain she can't keep clean.

copyright 2020 Eric Lawson