I am hungry,
But you feel no need to feed me.
I ask you, ‘why?’
You quite simply give no reason.
You would much faster feed a dying dog in the street
Than acknowledge a fellow human in need.
Or am I not human?
Am I not human enough for you?
Or are you not human?
Are you not human enough for me?
See I thought hu-man-it-ty
Was all about compassion,
That it was all about togetherness,
But perhaps these rose-tinted glasses need to be removed for once.
No, I don’t pay your bills or buy you food.
I don’t provide your live-li-hood.
But perhaps one day I will.
Perhaps not you, but the person after the next will spare my life,
Grant me a piece of bread and with that a second chance at life.
And perhaps with that I’ll get the chance to be that doctor,
The one who saves the life of your wife and unborn child
So you won’t have to foster
The pain of suffering without something or someone you dearly need.
I will be the one to lift you off your knees
All because someone else gave me something to eat.
First published in 2018.
This poem is the second-prize winner in the 19-25 age category of the End Hunger UK challenge on Young Poets Network (YPN) in 2018.
I wrote this poem on a sunny day in a park in South London. It was quite a juxtaposition because despite how lovely the surroundings were, inside I felt a strong sense of frustration and unfairness.
It took only 15 minutes to write this poem, because what I was writing felt so relatable to my own life. Was I in the incredibly vulnerable position of being homeless, no? But I did share an understanding of the difficulty of affording the extortionate living costs in the city. I had a roof over my head, but a roof I was barely able to pay for. And because at that time I felt like kindness was scarce in my life. I was surprised when someone on the street would smile at me, when a car would let me across the road instead of running through a pedestrian crossing without a second thought. I felt angry that kind people although present felt few and far between back then.
So this idea I had underpinned the poem – that if only we realised as a society the importance of being kind to one another. It may sound cliché but the truth is you never know what someone is going through. and a smile in the shop could help cheer them up, an offer of assistance to help them with their suitcase up steps could be exactly what they needed that day. You never know what someone is going through, and you never know how life can come full circle. The person ignored today could be tomorrow’s nurse or teacher for you or for your family member.
This competition aimed to address the nationwide issues of poverty in the United Kingdom in 2018. I hope that my poem gives food for thought on the importance of compassion and kindness.
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