Poetry and social commentary: Waking Up From The American Dream In Line At The Food Bank

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.

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.

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