Basic

Though luxuries I never had
once well fed enough I was
to contemplate the world without,
seeking beauty and morality
and the promise of a future.
Now shriveled, shrunken stomach hangs
untouched by food
for many days,
its need immense
with emptiness.
In this strife torn land
from a roadside ditch
my hollow gaze discerns the shape
of soldiers straggling by.
I know not why the bullets fly
over fallow land
where winds of famine
bring carrion fowl
to join the dance of death.
A crust tossed from a passing truck, a softness white in the ochre dust. Swollen tongue parts oiBted lips, entrails twist sawtooth edged, entire being in vice like grip of jagged pain, my universe is hunger.