Poem by Marianna Boncek

Bon Bon Terre
              Christmas 2025

I watch a video
on which a woman
explains how to make
Bon Bon Tere,
Dirt Cookies.
The cookies are made
with sanitized dirt,
some salt,
and margarine.
They have no nutritional value.
In Haiti, they are fed to hungry children
who have nothing else to eat.

Later that same day,
my partner and I
are walking on a winter sidewalk
which is liberally spread with salt.
A man walking his dog,
gently picks him up,
tucks him under his arm,
and walks across the salt littered sidewalk.
“It’ll hurt his paws,” the man explains.

How do I reconcile that I live in a world
where hungry children eat dirt
and well-fed dogs are carried to protect their paws.

THEME: Childhood Hunger

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Marianna Boncek is a writer and teaches in an MFA program. She writes across the genre having published 2 books of nonfiction, two novels and a short collection of poetry. Her plays have also been featured in the Hudson Valley Play Festival. Her poem "Bittersweet" won the 2021 Stephen Dibiase poetry prize. She lives in New York's Hudson Valley with her partner, Dave and her two cats Sputnik and Couper.

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