Kate Bernadette Benedict Adipose Ode O greediest of cells, hoarder of calories, simian gourmand stuffing your cheeks even as we sleep, it's time we honored you for a job well done! Thanks to you we sit comfortably in pew and on barstool, our laps make soft perch for sad child and weary head. In this world of hard knocks you cushion and buffer. But for you our sharp bones jangle, jut and bruise. Full flesh, let's celebrate your excess, your allure. What lean limb, what gaunt hip could possibly compare? It is the fashion to be angular as a hanger, a skinny horse for one's clothes, it is stylish to wear one's muscles like armor. But I say: soften your edges, let your fat jackself out of that narrow box, feed your body well and maybe your soul will increase along with it and the world be charged with an adipose grandeur, a contentedness, a magnanimity, a benevolent queen-size swell.

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