"Hungry" by Laurie Chandler

As part of the poetry slam for our most recent event, Hunger Stories: What is Hunger?, Laurie Chandler wrote and performed an amazingly beautiful poem titled Hungry. You can read this touching poem below:

Hungry

Her stomach clinched,
coiled into a clenched-fist.
Its intermittent cramps
contort her angel face
into a grimace.
This hollow-eyed waif,
waits for her mom to
wake-up, get dressed.
Feed her something, anything,
for breakfast.

A new day has begun,
Ushered in by the
White halo sun.
A City sparked to life--
People scurrying about
oblivious to one another’s strife.
Maybe today this child will eat.
Her belly satiated,
she will rise to her feet.
Smiling, laughing,
she will run out to play.
Into the sunlight, out of the gray…
…Cavern interior of her
family’s one bedroom home.
The family is always together.
She’s never alone.

Mom and Dad, both lost their job
They can leave windows open;
there’s nothing to rob.
Her family has no electricity,
no a/c, no tv, no phone.
The cupboards sit empty
bare to the bone.
Bacon scented breeze
wafts in through an
open door;
Her skeleton body
sinks to the floor.
Salt water river
streams from her eyes.
She is too young
to realize
That her mommy and daddy,
despite their love and affection,
cannot prevent Hunger’s
cruel infliction.

Downtown, there sits a man at a street corner;
He possesses far less than most.
Upon a battered piece of cardboard,
he scribbles a three- sentence post:
“Hungry. Please help. God bless.”
An average person,
On an average day,
Would walk right by him
and look the other way.

His skin is a crinkly fall leaf—tissue thin and rough--
Weathered by sun and wind,
It is cowhide tough.
Wiry-gray oily hair, dirty and unkempt …
Like his clothes in which
on the park bench last night he slept.
It’s so easy to judge him as a lazy, drug-abusing drunk
Though we’ve never walked a block in his tattered,
Thin-soled, thrift-store shoes
Or slept on a homeless shelter bunk.

It’s not a dignified way to live--
Having to implore and beg--
Fellow human beings to give
You, a stranger, money or food
So you can survive.
When we were given this planet with the intent
that all living creatures prosper and thrive.

Can someone please
explain to me why--
In a world created with limitless abundance—
poverty still abides?

Our loving Creator
did not design
Earth
on the premise of scarcity.
So why are people
starving throughout the world and
in our bountiful city?

There are plenty of
necessities here to go ‘round.
Yet, only among the few
is great monetary wealth found.
And I am not hating
on the top 1%...
It is a human condition
To which we all add consent…
to a degree… we,
allow this food insecurity
problem to expand
When we
ignore
Our neighbor’s outstretched hand.

- Laurie Chandler