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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 Ton Donlon

11/24/2022

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YES, THEY WERE HUNGRY

I still have pay stubs from McDonald’s
where I worked in the 1960s in high school.
I made $1.10 per hour. We were allowed
to eat for free during breaks. We gobbled
burgers and fries. At Kentucky Fried Chicken,
we were able, at closing, to take home buckets
of extra cooked chicken. It was the way of life
in Northern Virginia.

When I got drafted and chose the Navy
in 1972 to avoid Vietnam, I was assigned
to ships that traveled around the world.
On one cruise, we circumnavigated Africa,
visited Iran, Pakistan, Bahrain, Sri Lanka,
and sailed through the Red Sea to the
Mediterranean. The first stop across the
Atlantic had been in Dakar, Senegal
along the northwestern coast of Africa.

It was the blank-eyed, homeless people
living in cardboard boxes on street corners
that woke me up. Barely clothed boys
surrounded us begging for help. We were
careful to protect our Kodak cameras and
wallets. I’d never heard of a famine before.

During many port stops, it was the same:
poor, homeless and hungry people were
everywhere in struggling countries. Today,
as I sit with my family and enjoy the
abundant dinners and view the full cabinets
of food at home, I take each bite with a prayer
of thanks.
Picture
Tom Donlon lives with his family in Shenandoah Junction, WV. He earned an MFA from the American University in DC and was awarded a chapbook, Peregrine, by the Franciscan University in Steubenville, OH. He has received Pushcart Prize nominations and a fellowship from the WV Commission on the Arts.

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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!
    • 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