Famished: On finishing Hunger by Roxane Gay

This poem was written in response to Roxane Gay’s extraordinary new memoir Hunger: A memoir of (my) body (2017), which explores her experience(s) with fatness and living with memories of sexual trauma. In reading this memoir, I was struck by Gay’s unflinching confrontation of the violence she endured and current lived experiences, but also, how she uses her vulnerability as a site for resistance. After reading this book in one sitting, I was moved to respond; as such, my offering is the following piece where I aim to capture some of my immediate ruminations after reading the final lines