Poem by Emily Vargas-Barón

Hunger, Greed, and Pride
In honor of Hiram Larew

​Hungry children awaken, their cups so very empty
In all times, all places, and without fault
In crumbling cities and towns parched by sun and salt
Dreaming of honey, milk, and food aplenty

Hunger, Greed and Pride
Harbingers of poverty
Denying the poor their security
Onward, onward they stride.

They tell us that verdant valleys
Could feed ALL the world’s poor…
But why, oh why won’t
The Río Cauca feed South America?
The River Nile feed North Africa?
The Ganges feed South Asia?

Hunger, Greed and Pride
Harbingers of poverty
Denying the poor their security
Onward, onward they stride.

Latins, Africans, and Indians, hungry at dawn’s light
Forgotten, fearful and neglected
By autocrats, forever rejected
Condemned to a common, wretched plight.

Hunger, Greed and Pride
Harbingers of poverty
Denying the poor their security
Onward, onward they stride…

Emily is a “closet poet” who only writes poetry when she
cannot put her thoughts into any other form, and she rarely publishes her poems. She began writing poetry as a child alongside her father who was a noted professor of romance languages and literature. He bred in her a life-long love of poetry, the mathematics of poetry, and the music of poetry – that after all – are ultimately one and the same. She often watched him read poetry at home and on the banks of rivers, and she witnessed the joy it brought him.

​Emily’s life is much more prosaic. She leads an institute devoted to assisting countries in all world regions to build systems and services for early child development with the goal of helping every child to develop her or his inborn full potential. This poem speaks of her anguish over the plight today of millions of young children who needlessly experience hunger, disease and abandonment in societies that ignore them and with autocratic leaders who even disdain them.

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