HUNGRY
By James Caponera

He adjusts his neck.
And he looks down at his food;
His nourishment,
And lifts his fork and ponders it.
He licks his lips.
He cracks his back, he dives his fork.
He brings it back.
He attacks.
Like a predator jumps it's prey:
Fiercely.
     Without body.
               Without mind.
He is hungry.
And in hunger,
There is a deep rooted desire
TO SURVIVE;
           To nourish a force
Inside.
    Without body.
              Without mind.
He is hungry.

And he reads the paper.
His head moves monotonously:
It moves right.
It goes back.
It moves right.
It attacks.
And he leans in his chair,
Slides his hands through his hair,
Reading words as he glares
And throws the paper down
And stands
                Without thought.
                   Without reason.
        No ideals.
No demons.
He is hungry.

Not driven by logic,
But by an earthshaking clamor,
          The beat of a hammer,
            An instinctual manner,
That drives him
TO SURVIVE.

And he walks to the coffee pot
And pours himself a cup--
                         His hand shaking.
         His body aching.
                           The smell slowly drifting up,
Vibrating in the air,
                            Drifting here and there,
             He takes a sip.
                    He blink hard twice.
                             He takes a breath
                   That feels like ice
         And starts
 To move
         And carry on
                  Out the door
Into the streets.
           He hears a song:
           The noises of cars
Speeding by
        Honking horns,
Defiant cries.
    And bleating planes
Up in the sky.
    And telephone wires
Whining loud.
    And people's voices
Blurred in crowds.
    Of stomping feet
In the streets
    Of lonely hearts beating
In wandering humans beings
All struggling
          And struggling
                   TO SURVIVE.
          Without body.
Without mind.
They are all Hungry.

There is something inside us;
Deep within us--
So deep that all great minds
Within the confines of space
And Time
Have sought it out;
It is the force that drives us
Through thick and thin.
When all odds SCREAM that we will not win
WE KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Yet, some of have captured this force
And have turned it
            Into a BEAST:
They have tied it down
                  Against its will
And have stomped on it OVER AND OVER.
They have dug at its core,
    Put it through SO MUCH PAIN,
            Beat at it's very bones,
                    And have turned it against us.
This beast has enslaved us,
    Whipped us
        Into broken
            Individuals
                Working for
                    Nothing.

We are unified,
But as slaves
Working under a BEAST,
    Without Body.
        Without Mind.
We are hungry
        TO SURVIVE.
But the BEAST does not feed us,
It laughs and demeans us.
As we plead its machines dust
Bursts into our eyes,
Blinding us and forcing us
TO WORK, WORK, WORK.

And so we do NOT live to for ourselves,
But for the BEAST
And its work.
We live
    Not to appease the passion within us,
But to appease the BEAST
Who watches from above,
                Grinning a HARSH SMILE,
Its hands clasped slightly
As a million broken HUMAN BEINGS
Are crushed so tightly
UNDER IT'S
LOAD OF CRAP!

I am hungry,
For my food has been taken,
Hidden behind
A huge
     Wall.
I am hungry
And my people have been forsaken,
Thrown into pits
A loss
    Of Soul.
I am starving
Like an animal
Watching it's kill.
I'm drowning in a vision
Blurred the pills
They shoved
Down    
My
Throat
To cure my
Disease that they
Told me I have to
Make sure I'm
Not Free.
Vicious
And broken.
I'm torn and I'm
Tattered, so scarred
And abused,
    Asking what really matters.
                Tell me, Oh God
    Just give me a sign.
Will I ever be fed?
Or will I always be bind
By these chains on the feet
        I'm wasting away
            I see my damn bones
        My body decays.
My hunger's reached peak
    Yet it remains so oppressed
        By an educational system
    That pleads to be best:
Stunting expression
    Creativity and Love,
        Training me to work
    For the savior above
Who is not God nor Christ
Nor Muhammad or Moses
But a BEAST
    who his feasting
                 On all of OUR FOOD.

I AM HUNGRY FOR CHANGE

I AM HUNGRY TO SPEAK

SO FEED ME ALREADY

DON'T LEAVE ME

HERE WEAK.

I AM HUNGRY

I AM MIGHTY

I AM WRITING

FOR CHANGE

AND I WON'T

STOP WRITING

UNTIL WE ARE ALL FED.

WE ARE HUNGRY.