David Schiedermayer
Medical College of Wisconsin

You weigh more than 600 pounds
and the clinic scale
can’t top 350
So we walk
to the freight scale
to weigh in.
This coming to clinic
is like wrestling or boxing,
we have to know your weight
before we start.
As we walk, I can feel you
next to me.

I remember the first time
I saw a whale
near San Francisco
where the great grays move
slowly along the shore.
I stood on the deck
seasick, watching a faint plume of mist
saw the whale surface
and spout a roomful of moist air.
Scarred and encrusted,
it was alone, like you.
You get on the freight scale.
It reads 648 pounds.
You are gaining weight.
How is your diet going? I ask.
All right, you say.
I have a bowl of cereal
with coffee and juice. For breakfast.
I have a sandwich. For lunch.
Some meat. And vegetables.
For supper.
You breathe hard
between short sentences.

Whales strain food
as they swim.
Great chunks of flesh
surround your eyes,
you smell of yeast.
You move unsteadily on
the freight scale
give me a wide smile
blow a great steamy breath
into the morning air.