Give me the TV remote
so I can flick from your sunken face,
so your eyes don’t accuse me
as you squat in the dirt
and wait for me to do something.
Let me burn your food
so I can drive my car.
Let me splash water over my lawn
as your lips crack and bleed
and still I do nothing.
And if hunger is an act of war,
let me raise my white flag high.
Let me be tarred and feathered
in the leftovers from my chicken dinner
and as I finally rise from apathy
let them parade me
through the streets,
and let my only worry be
the size of my naked belly.
© Deirdre Cartmill
Food: A hungry world
---------------------------
Deirdre Cartmill’s first collection Midnight Solo is published by Lagan Press and her second collection will be published later this year. She is based in Belfast.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's note: Oxfam predicts a billion people will go undernourished, this year.
