Like many Americans I make use of the community food bank out of necessity. Fresh fruit and vegetables are simply too costly making the food bank a necessary weekly stop for large portions of the community.
Today I came home with potatoes, celery, organic blueberries, yogurt, oatmeal and eggs. I'm always happy when they have the yogurt. I was happy to see the oatmeal because I've been out of it for three weeks.
Today I came home with potatoes, celery, organic blueberries, yogurt, oatmeal and eggs. I'm always happy when they have the yogurt. I was happy to see the oatmeal because I've been out of it for three weeks.
I composed the poem today while standing in line with others and thinking about how poorly the country has been managed and how if the economy were managed justly everyone would have a bounty.
But instead we have food banks. I'm glad we have them because I'd be malnourished or starve without the local food bank. But you and I both know that a different, more Socialist, management approach of administrating the national wealth could make the situation a whole lot better for a whole lot of people.
America is on the ropes and the Republicans and Democrats are at fault for mismanaging the economy while serving the interests of Wall Street and the Corporate Community creating the diseased social environment we find ourselves in at the moment.
America your poor are waking up. Some are cranky, some unhappy, but damned near all of us are ready for a change.
But instead we have food banks. I'm glad we have them because I'd be malnourished or starve without the local food bank. But you and I both know that a different, more Socialist, management approach of administrating the national wealth could make the situation a whole lot better for a whole lot of people.
America is on the ropes and the Republicans and Democrats are at fault for mismanaging the economy while serving the interests of Wall Street and the Corporate Community creating the diseased social environment we find ourselves in at the moment.
America your poor are waking up. Some are cranky, some unhappy, but damned near all of us are ready for a change.
POEM BELOW PICTURE
Waking Up From The American Dream In Line At The Food Bank
I woke from
the American Dream
standing in
a line at the food bank
that
stretched from 3 to 4:30
along the
side of the warehouse.
I woke after
50 years of grinding at the mill
with nothing
to show for it
but an empty
stomach,
and an empty
wallet
with both
hands in my pockets
shivering in
the wind and rain with others,
some not old
enough to have dreamed.
Some like me
who believed and dreamed
until
somewhere along the way they also woke
hungry and
broke,
run down by
the American Dream
and left for
dead,
standing,
shivering in the wind and rain
in line at
the food bank.
© David H.
Roche March 2018
