Poem by Lynda Scott Araya

Hunger
​
Hunger is a tricky beast:
Those who have it
Growling and grumbling,
Nagging to be satisfied,
Hide it from others.
After all,
Not everybody wants to know it
They fear its demands
Believe that to placate it
Will mean less
For themselves.
Sometimes,
Hunger, though shy with strangers,
Leaves clues of its presence:
Perhaps an empty cupboard
Where once it had foraged or
Its owner’s clothes
Now worn and hanging thin
Over rattling bones.
A child might sit apart to eat
One small sandwich
Trying to keep Hunger at bay
Which stares
Big-eyed at the children
With canteen money, filled rolls and fruit.
Hunger grows during times of hardship
And breeds during a pandemic.
It looks for solace,
To be fed
But so many are blind
They look away
Shake their heads at swollen empty stomachs and
Hollowed cheeks.
They are sure
Another will help.

Lynda Scott Araya is an educator and writer who lives in New Zealand. She has been published or as work forthcoming in Verse-Virtual, Grey Thoughts, The Wild Word, The Pangolin Review and more.

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