Just 38 Cents a Day

Just 38 Cents a Day Throughout history food has been used as a Weapon of Mass Destruction. The Romans would pillage and plunder – then burn the fields of the defeated, punishing all who survived. The Apache are alleged to have poisoned the water holes when retreating through the desert – a form of death by desert inflicted on the pursuers. Sherman marched to the sea punishing all to break the will of the beaten confederacy. Today, trucks stand idle, food supplies rot in the heat at checkpoints that keep those in the “ghettoes” confined and dying. Children and the elderly scavenge through dumpsters for simple sustenance as armed “thugs” loot and destroy the “humanitarian” aid denied them. We preach “mindfulness” as we plow crops under to satisfy the calculus of a subsidy, divert rivers to irrigate golf courses, preach nutritional values to the malnourished, gasp at the news footage of starving children as we prepare “gourmet meals” for our pets. Our consciousness only aches when WE are hungry and is soothed when WE are sated by the saturated fat of a fantasy wherein the solution can be purchased - for just 38 cents a day. John G. Lawless 7/1/2015 submitted to – Food Can’t Live with it can’t live without it – poetry contest sponsor – Debbie Guzzi