Poem by T.A. Niles

The following two poems were inspired by Diane Wilbon Parks' artwork which appears on the
Poetry X Hunger website--ART - Poetry X Hunger.

Full Empty Bowl​

Spoons…a fork…
all with handles stretched and thin
as a mother stretches thin
her supplies for grateful gruel
 
Mouths…open wide
in hope and anticipation
of sustenance that never shows
except in drips and drabs
that can’t sustain
 
Faces…faces hue the spectrum
shapes geometrically twisted
like innards filled with pangs
angry entrails spit
parched accordion growls
 
The big empty…
the big empty-empty bowl
holds naught but air
so like the bellies
of those who stare
into its barren depths
 
And fruit…and veggies…
all outside the bowl
so full of emptiness
so full of broken-meal-promises
and shards of sated dreams
 
And eyes…
eyes that stare in longing
bulging squinting
in their unrelenting seeking
searching for even a tiny morsel
 
A morsel… mighty enough
to start saliva flowing in arid maws
filled with too-soft teeth
or none at all
 
A bowl…a bowl wide enough
deep enough to hold
only but an infinitesimal smidgen
of the soup we
—the full--
discard daily

Click to hear the poet read the poem.

T. A. was a seed planted in the Caribbean soil of Trinidad & Tobago on the cusp of the transformational 60s. He was watered and fertilized in the gardens of Brooklyn, New York and Hartford, Connecticut throughout most of the bell-bottomed, “blaxploitation-movie-era” of the 70s. Had trials by fire in the USMC in the late 70s to early 80s. Budded and bloomed in academia in the 80s and 90s, before his withering began at the turn of the 21st century. Yet, before he falls from the stem, and is ground once more into dust, he hopes to feed a mind or two. He relishes the thought of others being nourished by his expressions. T. A. is also thrilled to have narrated Mud Ajar, the latest collection of poems penned by Poetry X Hunger's founder Hiram Larew and made available to the public by Atmosphere Press.

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