Empty stomachs speak languages only the mind can hear
starving children make sad melodies
while mothers and fathers stomachs sleep empty  
living life while facing internal tragedy
they eat and breath poverty
while their countries exploit those working
victims of a broken nation
beggars make more income than those working
poverty is their new identity
starvation is their reality

Back in the twenty first century
The world was in chaos.
There was no World Gov.
Democracy was limited to certain “Nations”
As such territories were called.
(We were so territorial then).

Millions died of malnutrition
In places called “Asia”, “Africa” and elsewhere.
Factions fought for land, resources
And “Religious” beliefs
That I will describe to you later.

In those days people were persecuted
For their race, gender
And any way in which they differed from “the norm”.

Anyone who spoke up against injustice
And countless other wrongs
Was branded “Un-PC”
Humiliated
Before his (or her) peers.

Those were troubled times,
Back in those “frontier days”.
Be thankful we are now civilised:
United Human Race,
Worldwide Democracy,
People Loving,
Compassionate
For the Good of All.

Welcome to my history class.
Let us learn from our mistakes,
And never repeat them.

Paul Butters

7:00

Aching body
I can’t stand
Empty tummy
My dreamland

7:30

Cold water seeps
Through my body
Fish is eighty
I ate three

240

12:30

On the table lays some bait
Taking two shrimps on my plate
That’s one-eighty I can’t hide
So I pushed my rice aside

400

3:30

Forty squats
And leg lifts too
Jumping jacks
I need to do

5:30

I eat early
So they can’t see
Fish is eighty
I ate three

240

8:30

Counting while I’m on my bed
Two Two-forty and four-hundred

10:00*

Resting body
I can’t stand
Empty tummy
My dreamland

When children go hungry;
And even water is scarce,
When they have no shoes
And no country leader cares.
When school is too expensive
And illness goes unchecked,
Whose cause advances
As the economy is wrecked?

Greed is often the reason
If you ask yourself why.
Neglect and starvation
Makes the angels cry.

When parents neglect children
And seem to easily forget
That animals are not children
And children are not pets.
Everyone needs love and care
And a feeling they belong.
Any other treatment of them
In every culture is wrong.

Power can be made evil
For those who live by a lie.
People used as chattel
Makes the angels cry.

Some of us feel so lost
Overrun by a busy crowd
Seem to find our days are
Covered by a dark cloud.
Our old ones suffer alone
In tiny rooms of shame.
Our goal-oriented society
Seems to forget their name.

So, there is your answer,
You need not ask why.
Yes is the answer.
Indeed, angels do cry.

A child starves to death in the developing world
where is the justice in that?
I don’t see none.
the world, round,
like politicians
rotates unbalanced in its axis
their skewers rotate in excess
we’ve got the means to fill a child’s belly with food
but where is the will?
there’s enough to go around for everyone
how long will this injustice continue?
those in power
happily sipping their floats
while millions of bellies bloat

Some will make their home
Wherever they can
Get to with their feet.
Cardboard box houses
And pallets they find
By trash bins on the street.
The boxes work well
Unless it snows or rains
And then when they melt
It’s out to find a home again.

Go on home
Where the love is
Home to family
Go on home
Where you’re welcome
There is no home for me.

Cookie used to be a chef
He lives under that low bridge
He cooks in used coffee cans
That just how his life is.
Makes dinner when he has it
For us who have so little.
You’ll find him most days
Cooking delicious food
Halfway to the middle.

Go on home
Where your bed is
Home to wife and your kids
Go on home
And be grateful
And not living on the skids.

Some people gripe
When the waiter is slow
And some were once waiters
Themselves long ago.
Some people are full
After they have dined
Others only manage to eat
Whatever castoffs they find.

Go on home
Because you have one
Because you have a job.
Go home where no one
Call you a lazy slob.
Go home and thank God
You have a place to sleep.
Go home and be grateful
Go home and God keep.

Blackbird
shadow death
witness
the spiraling
madness

glide
silent over
once vital beehive
shorn gray
paper thin

sip
raw honey
hardening
in the merciless
heat

nourish
the suffering
concentration-camp thin
jutting bone
slack skin

reflect
the boundless light
of a shield
wrought from
love

honor
these golden
futile gestures
they are not
infinitesimal grains

Blackbird
with beaded sight
testify
*do not avert
your eyes