In the Presence of Hunger In the nine decades my father lived, he’d experienced the disgrace of unemployment, employment in backbreaking labors, bare feet. In his 70’s, despite my mother’s objections that it was for the really poor, he stood in line for government-issued cheese, refusing to give his name and income. Instead he lifted up his shirt to show his six-inch surgical incision, Look what they’ve done to me, he’d say, and because it was still raw in its recovery, they turned away and gave him the orange cheddar chunk that we rejected because it tasted so bland and waxy. But he sliced it, placed each piece on soda crackers and ate it with sweetened, milk-laden coffee, because his age had taught him there is no dishonor in hunger: the memory of The Great Depression a half-century strong. Video of the poem: https://youtu.be/pZ0_NUF63w8 Teresa Méndez -Quigley was selected as the 2004 Poet Laureate for Montgomery County (PA). She studied under the tutelage of poet Christopher Bursk. She resides in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, with her family, surrounded by untamed gardens and stacks of poems yet to be housed.
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