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Cannibal

Story by Rachel Lyon (Read author interview) March 26, 2013

Art by Anita Rundles

Ever since I became a cannibal, I’ve kind of lost my appetite. It’s not that I don’t love human flesh. It has a rich, tender taste, salty and warm. The closest thing I could compare it to is pork, but it’s better than pork. There’s a dark, round mouth feel. It’s smoky, has endless variation. The light meat is sweeter, the dark meat less supple, more charged. It’s magnetic, satisfying. I just can’t bring myself to eat it.

It’s been months. Years? To say I’ve been losing weight would be an understatement. I disgust myself, is the truth. Skinny arms, skinny legs. A ribcage you could keep a bird in. My hair used to be my best feature: thick, brown, and rich. Now it’s brittle and thin. I find it in clumps in the drain. I throw it away with the cat litter.

Thing is, I used to be so appetizing. A real zaftig beauty. My breasts were like dough balls, nipples like little candies. My fingers and toes begged to be sucked on. Men bit and licked me, and not just during sex. Perfect strangers. In elevators, movie theaters. The backs of city buses in the middle of the night. They’d tell me they wanted to devour me. They’d tell me I was delicious.

About the Author

Rachel Lyon received her MFA in creative writing at Indiana University. She has been fiction editor for Indiana Review, and a Ledig House International Writers Colony fellow. Her work has appeared in Hobart, Toad, the Saint Ann’s Review, Arts & Letters, and Works & Days.

About the Artist

Anita Rundles is an Illustrator/photographer living in Brooklyn, New York. She uses different types of media in her work but her favorite subject is the human spirit, and the beauty in a thought or moment.

This story appeared in Issue Thirty-Nine of SmokeLong Quarterly.
SmokeLong Quarterly Issue Thirty-Nine
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