Starvation

The people of this world— the makers, the healers, the working hands— are rising at last and taking a stand.

Enough is enough, we finally say.

But the corporations answer: It'll never be enough as long as there's more we can take away.

The rich don't care for the sick or the poor. While we're hungry for food, they're hungry for more, more, more.

We're drowning in debt, in disease, in despair, while they're drowning in wealth and still grasping for air.

We struggle to live, they don't struggle or need, but still we are denied our most basic needs.

We are deprived of water, clean air, and bread, while depravity feasts and grows fat instead.

We watch them parade through galas and gold, while families shiver in houses gone cold.

We're exhausted from labor, from scraping to live, they're exhausted inventing new reasons to give their excess a purpose, their power a name, their privilege a virtue, their wealth a claim.

We're trying to heal the world that they break, while they poison the soil, the rivers, the lakes.

We fear losing everything.

They fear losing anything.

Because the only thing the one percent knows is what they possess, and what they can own. More wealth.

More control.

More power home-grown. ________________________

This poem is an extension of my exhaustion.

Exhaustion with this administration. Exhaustion with the government on both sides. Exhaustion with feeling as though all I ever do is scream into a void, unheard and unseen.

Many of us feel as though we are shouting into that same storm. We make our grievances known. We protest. We vote. We organize. We tell those in power what is hurting us and what needs to change.

Yet our struggles are too often treated as acceptable collateral damage in the pursuit of profit, growth, and control.

The central theme of this poem is starvation.

Some people starve because they lack food, shelter, healthcare, security, or opportunity. Others starve because nothing is ever enough. More money. More influence. More power. More control.

This poem shines a spotlight on the contrast between those two hungers.

Whether the subject is wealth, politics, corporations, or social systems, the frustration behind these lines comes from a simple question:

How much is enough?

For those struggling to survive, the answer is surprisingly modest: food, clean water, affordable healthcare, safe housing, and a government willing to listen.

For those who already possess more than they could ever need, the answer too often is:

Never enough.