Poem by Aressa Williams

Hunger Speaks

Hunger.
Call my name, people cringe.
A dark reputation precedes me.
Emptiness, discomfort, longing, potential death
leave a bad taste in the mouth.

I am misunderstood.
I am a signal, reminder, alert.
“Hey, your body needs food.”
My job is to warn not harm.

If I linger too long, 
the body, mind, spirit suffers.
If I linger too, too long,
the human vessel perishes.  

Still, I have hope.
Imagine healthy meals on every table.
Imagine well fed children thriving in the classroom.
Imagine abundant food sources shared worldwide. 

But for now,
Say Hunger, people cringe.
All you can eat, people binge.
Wasted food could feed many. 
I wish my name meant plenty.

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Aressa V. Williams, a retired DC Public School teacher and an Assistant Professor of English retiree, is also a writing consultant and poet. The aspiring message-maker wrote her first book of poems to earn a Girl Scout badge for Creative Writing. Aressa’s self-published works are Soft Shadows, The Penny Finder, and Pancakes & Chocolate Milk.  The word-weaver believes poems are word snapshots. She is the proud mother of Aaron Coley and the grateful grandmother of Aressa Coley.

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