Opening Lines

My poem, “How Can I Speak About Hunger” is included in powerful collection of poems speaking about hunger. You can order a copy of the anthology at Ingram and www.nature-culture.net/poetryxhunger • Price: $24.99 (paper), 25% off bulk orders of ten or more. $19.99 (e-book).

How Can I Speak About Hunger?

(a pantoum)

A mother stands, draped in starving children

On a road in an endless desert.

To buy food, an old woman chops branches from

A tree older than she is.

A mother stands, draped in starving children

While a farmer drops seeds into dusty furrows beneath

A tree older than she is.

Who will feed the children and water the seeds?

While a farmer drops seeds into dusty furrows,

Thundering guns drown the crying children and hissing vultures.

Who will water the seeds and feed the children?

What can be harvested from such a crop?

Thundering guns drown the crying children and hissing vultures.

Ships listlessly bob at anchor, food rotting in their holds.

What can be harvested from such a crop?

Who holds the power to stop the guns and feed the hungry?

Not the farmer in his field,

Not the old woman gathering wood,

Not the starving Madonna.

How can I speak about hunger?