My stomach aches
When I think of all those babies,
Ribs pressed out against dry skin,
Shrunken brains and swollen stomachs
Straining to escape a poverty
That makes minimum wage
Look like a fortune.
$7.25 an hour, when millions live on
Less than $7 a week,
Pennies that are left warming in parking lots,
Buying another day of life for gaping mouths.
Children are supposed to run, jump  
Play, laugh, learn,
Yet thousands sit blank-eyed
Staring at a future painted in
War-torn red, lonely navy,
And consuming, starving, empty black
Not having enough energy to
Lift thin, pale lips into a weak smile,
Let alone traipse miles of dusty sorrow to school each day.
My soul aches for tears shed in
Dark, hungry nights
Prayers uttered wordlessly
Into the crescent moon
As razor thin as their arms.

Starve.

I've filled your hunger once before,

But no
Not any more

Starve.

Till your heart runs dry
Out of *love

Out of glee

Out of me...

i crave your love more than anything in this world

I was born in the middle of a war.
My mother died giving birth to me.
Aunt Khalfa said my father was killed in another war;
Not the war I was born during.
When I was five,
The only form of knowledge I knew,
Was to count using my fingers.
My siblings hated me.
They said I caused mother's death.
I guess I did.
We never had more than two slices of bread,
And a browning pear to eat daily.
I was lucky I was big enough,
To fill my own pail,
With the water from the well.
Some other kids in the neighbourhood weren't.
Like me, they didn't have Mom and Dad.
But at least I had Aunt Khalfa.
For these kids,
Most of the time,
It never ends well.
They are born tiny with bloated tummies,
They are always hungry,
They grow taller and skinnier,
Eventually you see them lying by the side,
With flies hovering over they decaying corpses.

GASPING I
fall from the bed, embarrassed I attempt
a climb
but I pull the sheets from my bed with clammy hands
that shske
and quiver
i cant see anymorew

tell me you understand
pretend you can feel my pain
put yourself in my shoes
buy me food when I say I'm not even hungry
watch my face when I leave the bathroom
ask if I've eaten
care
at all

don't do any of these things
I'm giving that up for good