Grains (World Food Hunger)

by walawala

Published October 15, 2006

[The following poem was written after an inspiration from my Geography lesson on World Food Hunger. It is really quite a sad fate for those poor guys living in impoverished areas of the world, so yeah, this is to awaken the fortunate souls sitting here in front of the computer screen, in case you are unaware that you are living in ultimate bliss... ]

Grains

You are living.
Dressed in your stylish fabric
Posed on a plush chair, eating
Eating grains.
In your eyes nothing flickers, your forceful crush of teeth
Crush the grains of light, grains hope for
The African lady – no, creature, you call her
She lies weary and old
Of the savage killings every day
Her grains are placed by her, one –
Or maybe two, if lucky
Her fingers clasped over her grain,
Her grain, hers, her grain of survival
The seed to living, death has now
Consumed her more than she has
Devoured her grains
She lies motionless day by day, while you
Sit stonily by the table, watching grains –
Grains of wealth, grains of power, come to you
Does that not elude you? That your grains are in need
Somewhere else.
However you fail to notice
The hungry souls weakened by the lack of
Your grains, as you sweep them to the furnace,
You do not know, you survive so well.
When the fire dies, the humans fall to their death
Yet the beasts survive, but do you ponder why?
For all they seek are your grains, but for now
They are dead.

Comments & reviews · 2
Random avatar
walawala Comment
walawala commented Comment · Oct 16, 2006

Well, thanks for your sacarsm.

User avatar
Incandescence
Review
Incandescence wrote a review Review · Oct 16, 2006

Hi walawala,


Welcome to the Young Writers Society.

First, posting something in the poetry forums does not make it poetry. This, for instance, is a good example of such a case.

I agree, it's always tempting to write a poem about a world tragedy. In general, it's best to resist the temptation. The terrible waste, the stupidity, the evil, transcend our ability to put words together in a rational process to describe what happens.

Reaching for some significant moral lesson is a waste of time. The event asks, instead, for faith.

As for this, I suggest you find a trash can.


All the best,
Brad



That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.
— Ramy (Babel by R. F. Kuang)