Hunger

It doesn't have to be this way!

According to Concern Worldwide, “The world produces enough food to feed all of its inhabitants. Yet an estimated 673 million people went without food for part (or all) of last year. Hunger is an issue in every country…” Even in the United States, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, Feeding America reports that “48 million people face food insecurity—experiencing daily challenges with hunger and its health and social impacts.”

Almost 30 years ago I penned this poem. Sadly, it’s timely still. The news of famine has spread to other venues, now with daily reports on children dying of starvation, combatants blockading relief supplies, desperate people scrambling for the scraps that make it through. Gaza, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, the Congo. The list goes on.

As we sang in the sixties, “When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?” And, now, sixty years later, when indeed?

             Hunger on April 2, 1997

My breakfast by habit is grapefruit juice.
This morning, however, I hunger for more,
so divert my commute to the donut shop:
apple fritter to go.

Dipping my hand in the crinkly white bag,
ripping pieces of crusty soft dough,
I drive freeways and byways ’cross Silicon Valley
to another day’s work.

But this Morning’s Edition on NPR News
says starvation is rampant ’cross North Korea, 
whose people are desperate, whose families are split
by another day’s war.

While some dip their rice bowls in near empty bags,
and others rip bark and leaves from the trees,
I maneuver my car and weave through the rush
to another day’s work.

Nearing my office, I munch the last morsel
as NPR News talks of baseball’s first day.
The white bag now crumpled, I hunger no longer --
sated and empty.