It’s a Pattern. Commentary on Barbara Diggs’s “You Are What You Eat”

We each thrive dependent on how well we nourish ourselves. But what we choose to nourish ourselves with is a story in and of itself. In Barbara Diggs’s “You Are What You Eat,” the reader witnesses the effect of one narrator’s attempts at mitigating rage by replacing it with love. But which ingredients are required? Diggs pulls the reader in with sensual yet surprising language. “Sunny side up, salmonella-scrambled, salsa-slathered, over-hard yellow-white discs fried in bacon grease until the edges curl like wispy brown lace.”

And this leads us into an extended metaphor. If, “[y]ou are what you eat,” and, “I know you are eggs,” then let us explore what that means for a person, a family, and a household. Diggs gives us the whole picture from the beginning, “Your dad was the original egg man, eating five every day, insisting you ate at least three.” Are we really creatures of habit?

And do we know what we want? “[Y]ou mumbled into my neck that you didn’t even like eggs, just learned to choke them down because it was easier…” But when a new set of ingredients enters the picture, “You consumed it with eyes closed, licked your fingers, but told me everything tasted sour.” Can we break old patterns and begin anew? Or will the set pattern break us instead? “I thought it could overpower any craving, salve your cracked heart,” says our narrator. What will it mean for the future? What will it mean for the narrator’s relationship? Read this tale and decide for yourself.

Source: Diggs, Barbara. “You Are What You Eat.” Fractured Literary Magazine, 22 April 2024, https://fracturedlit.com/you-are-what-you-eat/.

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