Hunger Theory (Poem)

Depression-Era Childhood Faces, Soup Kitchen, St. Louis, Missouri

Image Care of Creative Commons Flickr

Hunger Theory

What we know of demand theory,
     of deep recessions and business cycles

you won't find in books about the great depression.
     Where we come from, mice and men both scrap

for potato skins when the light dies. Even the mockingbird frets,
     mourning its way for lack of relief at the end of a bread line.

Nothing you've read about last runs on banks as dried up
     as Midwest dirt done consuming a day's bucket of water

removes the taste of sparrow bones in our mouths, prevents
     our mothers' migration from their harvest-busted fields.

Farmers, unforgiven their loans, offer us bowls of dust
     we turn upside down. Patient, we try to curb the appetites

our dreams feed, cinch our lips, keep staring straight out, our eyes
     not so good at masking the indifference we reflect back on you.

Hunger, don't you know, can put up a fierce fight:
     make do without shoes, a change of clothes, even a new deal

hero. But an empty basket, big or small, just wastes you, waiting
     and wanting till your time runs out.

© 2010 Maureen E. Doallas
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I wrote this poem for One Shoot Photography Sunday at One Stop Poetry, which today features a Picture Prompt Poetry Challenge using the image shown above.

Anyone may participate in the challenge. Go here to read the two poems introducing the prompt, "The Day After..." by Leslie Moon and "Waste" by Pete Marshall, and to learn what to do to accept the challenge.