Peter Schmitt

Featured Poem: "Mascot"

Mascot

    for a friend with bulimia

One year in high school

as team mascot

you wore another skin,

leaping as a panther

at pep rallies

and football games,

losing your body

wholly inside another

a few hours every week,

and no one knew it was you.

The panther

had swallowed you up,

it was his problem now, his

the calories and pounds

to lose, his

the image in the tubas

and cymbals, he was the one

to make others laugh

and cheer.

At the end of the night

when he vomited you

back up, the panther

could hide

in your closet,

nothing but skin,

without spirit,

staring out at you

with his comforting,

vacant eyes.