I am the Child, I am the Mother



 



 



I am that child, with withered skin and bulging belly



And sunken eyes too weak to look at mama



 



I am that child, who’s angry at my papa



For coming home empty-handed again



 



I am that child, whose mother cannot look in the eye



For fear of the desperation so often displayed there



With no food to quieten it



 



I am that child, who wanders from home to home at mealtimes



Hoping to be offered a bite



 



I am that child, who punches down her grumbling stomach



To ease the pain of hunger  



 



I am that child, who digs my wild fruits into the ground,



Lest I be forced to share them with siblings



 



I am that child, who’s too weak from hunger



To attempt the half - hour walk to school



 



I am that child, who’s dribbling over my desk



Mouth muscles too fatigued



To hold in the saliva



 



I am that child, for whom teachers have pulled bits of their lunches together



My survival being crucial



To raise my grade’s mean grade in the division exams



 



I am that child, who dropped out of school



To slave for food to eat



And feed my siblings



 



I am that child in conflict zone



Running for peace, security



Running into hunger



 



Without an income, without prospects



My health and survival depend 



On others’ generosity



 



I am that child



And today I look into my child’s motionless eyes



The flies hover and feast on her dripping saliva



She having not strength enough to swat them



 



As she lifts her eyes to meet mine



I hear the same silent accusation I uttered many a times



When the fireside remained cold night after night



“Mama, when will I eat?”



 



I shudder under that mournful gaze



For the first time I enter my mother’s grief



And feel her despairing hope



Turned towards a world too absorbed in calories



To empathise



 



I am that child, and for the sake of my child



I turn my eyes towards our world of plenty



In hope she'll change our story



 



In hope she'll share her calories



And give herself and us a chance,



At well-being  



 



Poem Inspiration:



Economic inequalities exposed by Covid-19.



Some in the world are 'suffocating' in calories, complaining of how much they're eating and gaining weight in quarantine and making food out to be an enemy. 



Others are hungry and starving.



 



 



 

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