Are
We There Yet?
‘Don’t’
make me come back
there…!”
You’ve heard those words
You’ve probably spoken them
I have said these
words
riding along in the
Dad his cigarette hanging from the corner of his
mouth
“I’ll
pull this damn car over right now!
Is
that what you want? Well?
I
asked you a question! Answer
me!”
Are
we there yet?
This was our mantra over and over
a cadence embossed in the sticky
vinyl suicide jumper seats
my brother and I
jamming our fingers
through the weather stripping
permanently damaging the car
like millions of other children who’d
force their fingers through the back window
hanging limply as if dad had
rolled the windows up on our fingers
purposely to keep us in line
Are
we there yet?
back to front to dad’s
“don’t
make
me come back
there!”
or
“I can
turn this car around right
now!”
or
…
To my own kids’ hourly chime in
“I’m
hungry”
This is thier mantra
“I’m hungry
There’s
nothing to
eat”
Even though here in the land of plenty
here there is always plenty of food
“No
you’re
not!” I yell
“You have no idea what hunger is
Hunger to you is the fact that you have not eaten
a bag of chips or a chocolate bar
in the last 15 minutes
you haven’t had your daily dose
of Snickers and Red Bull
That is not hunger --
hungry is not having eaten
for the last 15 days
hungry is not being able to hold down a piece of
bread
because food has become a foreign entity
to your weakened stomach
hungry is where your
own stomach acids
begin digesting the lining
when you cannibalize yourself from the inside
where food has actually become
a poison our body must reject
no choose
to…
hungry is not knowing where or when or how or
if ever you will eat again
hunger is not a stomach growling from the
emptiness
it is the pain of extension the pressure of
distension
where the emptiness has been filled
with…
Are
we there yet?
At the end of the 19th century
food, hunger, sustenance was the talk
of all of the sciences
how by the end of the 20th century
hunger
would be eradicated
foodstuffs plentiful and cheap and nutritious
at one time Kellogg’s refused to add
sugar
to any of their products
for sustenance should be healthy
good for you
the 20th century has come and gone
We are the land of plenty
so plentiful that we are actually eating
ourselves
to death
we burn our excess foodstuffs
let the fruit rot on the vine
in the orchards
we create sport out of killing
animals
–
not to eat
– but to play
with our food
we bury it drown it destroy it
to protect the economy
to protect our profits
all the while we stuff the equivalent of
sawdust
animal by-products covered with syrupy sauces
into our bellies
we are the only country in the world
who forcibly and deliberately starve ourselves
from our excess
we surgically modify our bodies
we take pills milkshakes powders chemicals
we puke out our excess
we have recreated the aristocracy
arrogance of Ruben’s world
how beautiful is that?
Once when it was fashionable
or it got your picture on the cover
these musicians got together
to teach the world about hunger
“feed
the
world” they sang
the world is still hungry
“feed
the
world”
they profited by
hundreds of years later
we are unhealthier than when we were
ignorant farmers in the land of plenty
How far do we have to go?
How many of us will we kill?
feed
the world
Aren’t
we there yet?
©2005 khristianekay All rights reserved