Ending the War on My Body: Poems

By Katherine McClintic

Ending the War on My Body is a decade-long poetic march through the minefield of body image, self-esteem, and the eventual path home to one’s own body. It traverses the life of the young feminine through visceral poems written from the trenches of disordered eating and body dysmorphia, the torturous chase for beauty and perfection, and the futile search for validation in romantic love. As the shots fired in youth begin to mend, peace between mind and body is negotiated. This collection of poems invites anyone who has scorned who they saw in the mirror to make peace with their body as it is now, and how it will age.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Katherine McClintic
• Release date: Jun 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781956019490

Katherine McClintic

Katherine McClintic is a choreographer, poet, and founder of the online dance community Inbox Dance Party. She moved to NYC straight after high school and now works in TV, Film, and Theater in NYC and LA. A closet poet until now, Ending The War on My Body is Katherine's debut book. Katherine is passionate about sharing her journey to body acceptance in a visceral, imaginative way as she previously longed for art, dance, conversations, and music in her own healing journey to supplement therapy and medical resources. Ending the War on My Body is in production to become a multi-media performance event combining Katherine's choreography and poetry through film, dance, music, and visual art in collaboration with many amazing artists. Learn more at www.katherinemcclintic.com

Book preview

Ending the War

on My Body

Poems

Katherine McClintic

Copyright 2022 by Katherine McClintic

Artwork by Cait Jones

Author portrait by JJ Ignotz

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 978-1-956019-48-3 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-956019-49-0 (ebook)



4697 Main Street

Manchester Center, VT 05255

Canoe Tree Press is a division of DartFrog Books

Dedicated to my foremothers,

Dianne Reynolds-McClintic,

Joan Bishop-Reynolds,

Shirley Klumpp-McClintic

This book wouldn’t exist without your brave steps toward

unconventional lives.

Contents

Unrest

A Chest Open

What You Believed About Me

My Tongue

The Great Tyrant

(The Mirror)

But

Basic Training

Carnage

Tumbleweeds

Don’t Cut Your Hair

Between Men’s Hands

Fixer-Upper

Paint Me by Number

Affianced

Eradicate

Prisoner of War

Fighting

Trenches

Squeaky Wheel

Gr8ful

Treason

Shrapnel

Numb

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Taking My Body to Market

Horror Film

Lack of Stillness

Master of None

Restless Joy

Taste of Freedom

Shell Shock

It’s Worth Living

A Breath

(I Broke Them)

Reflection

Ending the War on My Body

A Toast

Vows & Treaties

Hindsight

Permission

Yolk

Before & After

Color

A Prayer to Age

Peace

Homecoming

Is That My Body?

Revolution

Space

Born Again

Victory

Afterword: Poems from High School

Apples and Oranges Don’t Compare

Green Goo That Claimed It Was Good

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Unrest

I remember liking my clothes

and making bold choices

I suited up in what suited me

I felt like an icon, a tween idol

Hot pink capris

Lime green tank

Zebra-striped accessories

Pigtails and a too-big smile

Unplucked eyebrows

Glitter for miles.

I floated above.

Like a pin to a balloon

I remember the day

when I learned

that I didn’t know

how to pretty

No one told me

But there was a skeptical squint

A snicker as I walked

Someone’s mother said

"Well aren’t you brave

to be so much"

My bubble popped

Though I had been me, wholeheartedly.

It wasn’t pretty

Was it?

I didn’t know how to pretty

so I looked

In Cosmo

In Vogue

In diet articles

In the Reader’s Digest

Telling me to count how many times

I chew each bite of food

(which I certainly started to do)

There were no pamphlets

on becoming pretty

in the school counselors’

spinning wire racks

Yet other girls

knew the secrets

I seemed to lack.

They knew how to pretty

Who had taught