Poem by Christopher T. George

No Relief

How dare you starve on our national TV?
You stare at the camera with eyes so large
they might be filled with stars, with oceans,
with the treasure of Fort Knox
—not just with plain old hunger
we can satisfy by opening the refrigerator.

Don’t flaunt your tragedy at me.
You have hunger enough
we could drive a Cadillac through it.
How dare you show your ribs like that?
This isn’t the Smithsonian.

These sort of things just don’t happen
—didn’t anyone tell you?
Crawl on back through time
and join those other miseries:
Dachau, Wounded Knee, the Black Death.
​
How dare you thrust your bloated torso out.
You’re just not svelte enough.
Don’t shove your claw of a hand toward me. 
Don’t open your mouth with your disasters of teeth. 
(When did you last see your orthodontist?)  
Don’t speak to me. 
We can have no converse.

Video recording of Christopher reading his poem: ​https://youtu.be/Sm2_gaALtps

​Christopher T. George was born in Liverpool, England, in 1948 and first came to the United States in 1955. He
studied poetry with Sister Maura Eichner and Elliott Coleman. His poetry has been published in journals
worldwide, including Poet Lore, the American Poetry Journal, Anti-Heroin Chic, Beyond Words, and Madness Muse Press, and has a poetry site at http://chrisgeorge.netpublish.net/ 

---