Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Hunger in America

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

Hunger in America

 

Hunger in America has always been

Denial is the American way

Food insecurity is a euphemism

Like eccentricity for madness

It does not describe the truth

The way a stomach tightens

In the throes of hunger

It does not describe

How the mind fogs over

And all thought centers on food

It does not describe

The shame of mothers and fathers

When a child goes hungry at night

 

Hunger is like a drug addiction

It gnaws at your humanity

It drags you to the gutter

It makes you plead

Like a common beggar

It transforms you into someone

You no longer know

 

So don’t belittle it with euphemism

Its name is hunger

It is one step short of starvation

It is a time of desperate yearning

 

(an estimated 35 to 50 million Americans

will experience hunger during the pandemic)


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