ABSTRACT
This very poignant poem was written by a ®fteen-year-old anorexic girl, Emma, who does not refer to herself with a capital `I' in her diary. The painful account of Emma's illness and slow recovery was written and published by her loving godmother (Lee 2004). Emma ®nds herself in the grip of an internal con¯ict, a battle between life and death, for no apparent motive. Why do Emma and so many other girls, belonging to different countries, backgrounds, social and religious cultures, let themselves fall into a pit from which some of them will never climb out? Why do they refuse help, in spite of their deep unhappiness?
