The Weight of a Pound

Heart pounding after a run, I pounded water I didn’t want,

hoping to lose a pound.

Looked down at Daisy,

my dog,

the one from the pound who looked at me three years ago,

giant puppy eyes insistent with love,

insisting I free her.

I took her home from the pound that day

-that place of confinement-

so that she could be free to be,

free with me.

I thought of that pound and how if I was a dog I would have wanted to leave too.

I thought of each pound of me and how badly I wanted them to leave too.

I thought about weights and measures and kilograms and ounces and grains.

I thought about how something wasn’t measuring up.

I went upstairs and faced my enemy.

And that spring morning, as the rain pounded against my sweaty, exhausted skin,

I took the scale that measured me and threw it in the dumpster behind my apartment, heart pounding.

I walked into my home, out of the pound.

And finally felt the weight I had so badly wanted to lose

Drop off.