Unbloat

When we came back in the evening she would be bitter and spiteful and get bloated on purpose, and Cal and I would have to run her up and down until long after dark to unbloat her.

His twenty-four-year old^([sic]) son, a gym rat, had only last week told him about a bodybuilder who collapsed and died, on stage, after having ingested enough diuretics to unbloat a sick elephant.

There were a lot of dos and don'ts, with examples: 'get in, get out' (Raymond Carver), not what I'm doing here, obviously; 'unbloat your plot' (Colum McCann); 'never open a book with weather' (Elmore Leonard); 'keep your exclamation marks under control (Elmore Leonard again!); 'do not place a photograph of your favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide' (Roddy Doyle).

Now, the unbearable heat broken, awnings unbloat, locusts crank up their battery-green volts and I climb the stairs

If you cinch her up like that she'll unbloat soon as you get on her, and throw you and roll the saddle down under her belly, then go wild.

So for two days we sit right in front of the wood stove waiting for our bellies to unbloat so we can stuff them again.