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Hunger Poems

You are encouraged to read the poems posted here from national poets and elsewhere on the Poetry X Hunger website, to look at the historic accounts of hunger, famine and starvation, or consider the ​prompts suggested and then... ​write some poetry about hunger. 

Poem by Lisa Bennington-Love

2/15/2025

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Shopping Cart Jesus

I drag this cart
Through dried bones of the city
Metal groaning like my insides
A new place that's become home to me
The bulldozer keep pushing me further
Away from what I knew
I've become flicker in their rearview
A stain they’d rather wash off their streets

I once had a name
But it blew away with the last winter
Lost in the ash of factories
That don’t spit fire anymore
Tossed into overfilled dumpsters
Becoming damp and wrought
With memories of youth

Now I’m just a pair of cracked hands
Clutching the handle of this rusted cage
Filled with ghosts of things I’ll never own
Family I'll never see
And songs I try to remember
They say laughter is the best medicine
But not when you're laugh at me

You think I’m nothing
But I’ve seen more
Than your eyes could believe
I've watched the city rot from the inside

After the evictions of seniors
It bloom renewed
The people who made the city
Have all gone away
Left is a gentrified community
With food trucks and electric cars

I’m the shadow of your worst fear
The thing you don’t dare become
I am human too
More real than your luxury condos
Than the plastic smiles you wear
To mask your own hunger

My home is wherever I lay my head
It's filthy, decayed, and full of feces
It's not warm or comfortable
It's sometimes just a tarp
But once in awhile I get to sleep
In a house
With no electricity or heat
Eating?
Yeah, I eat whatever I can find
Don't mind the sound of my stomach
That's just god being divine

It doesn't matter how I got here
Our stories aren't cared for anyway
Just excuses and lies
You call me lazy, stupid, and gross
However, I am a lot like you
I want to be noticed and loved too

I once dreamed like you
Homes with roofs that held tight
Windows that opened to let the world in
Now they are boarded up to keep me out
Nah, I guess it's not that bad
I could be dead
That'll probably happen sooner than later
If you find me laying on a slab of concrete
Would you at least take the shoes off my feet?
Put them aside for someone else
Maybe they'll have better luck living in this hell

Bennington-Love, Lisa. Paper Monsters. Phantom Stitch Press, 2025. “Shopping Cart Jesus.”

Picture
A native of Detroit, Lisa Bennington-Love is a poet who uses her experiences to bring awareness to abuse, addiction, and domestic violence. She tempers her work with a dark, wry, sense of humor.

With a deep passion for language and rhythm, she crafts evocative verses that resonate with readers
on an emotional level. Lisa has four books of poetry and has even garnered praise from punk icon,
​Exene Cervenka.

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  • Home
  • About
    • About the Initiative
    • Initiative Founder
    • Recipients and Donors
  • Hunger Poetry
    • e-Collection
    • Hunger Poems
    • World Food Day Poetry Competition >
      • 2021
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
    • Maryland Poets
    • International Poets
  • ART
    • ART Inspired Poems
  • News & Blog
  • Young Poets
    • Poems by Young Poets >
      • West Side Campaign Against Hunger
    • Videos
    • Materials for Teachers
  • Library
    • Extent of Hunger >
      • Global Hunger: Progress & Challenges
      • Hunger in the US
    • Historic Accounts of Hunger >
      • Africa
      • The Americas
      • Asia
      • Europe and Russia
    • Historical Poems
    • Interviews
    • Recent highlights
  • Contact/Submit/Take Action
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Call to Action
    • Resources >
      • Global resources
      • US resources
      • Maryland resources