Malak Kalmoni. Chehab Fantastic poem, Malak! Counting calories is hell! This poem is an excellent indictment of how we allow ourselves to be brainwashed by cultural norms, thus setting ourselves up to be victimized by crass marketeers of fraud. You as poet do proffer the hope that we may be awakened, enlightened by love, but that too often turns out to be a fairy tale. You raise such profound questions.To what extent are we shaped by stories and expectations? How free are we when we are so susceptible to cultural influences. You’ve created gut wrenching, powerful images and some wonderful scattered rhymes: hen/pen/wren, refrain/brainwashed, flees/deep, etc..Hurray!! By, Linda Powers O’Dell
Your poem is a masterclass in satire, Malak Kalmoni Chehab perfectly captures the endless cycle of dieting with such finesse, the way you weave words is truly creative. By, Ritu Shyam
Thank you for the honor and your hard work.
Diet
Diet shmyiet, what a gross lie it
Is told to men and women
To market
Products, tasteless, gross hen
Where the pen is the dieter’s
Wren speaking in a singsong
Refrain to honor the brainwashed
Who follow like Lambs to the slaughters
As they count calories,
Exercise till exhaustion flees
Into Snow White’s deep sleeps
To be woken, only, by love’s
Kiss, a fairytale designed,
Like the diet, shmiyet, to inculcate
A perception of self that changed
With trends of beauty’s fate.
©️ Malak kalmoni chehab ©️
My poetry book, Perfectly Flawed poetry for change, is available on all eplatforms including Amazon. It was on the finalist list for the Canadian Book Club Awards 2023
https://www.amazon.ca/Perfectly-Flawed-poetry-Malak-Kalmoni/dp/1525582518
Poetry for Change 