—I’VE BEEN HUNGRY PLENTY OF TIMES, THOUGH I'VE NEVER BEEN STARVING TO DEATH

 

Undertow

 

Sipping coffee 

with a dollop of cream,

standing by the lake,

I noticed a beaver

float past like a dream

I might have had once,

his wake wide enough to

blanket an entire country,

keep kids from starving

or eating their own young.

 

For the first time in my life

I glanced inside my chest,

saw a vacant globe, hollowed 

out, as if it had been infested

with termites, so famished 

they’d munch on anything

just to stay alive a single 

second longer.

 

I was thinking about you again,

how you said I needed 

to stay hungry if life was 

ever going to mean more 

than simply holding your breath 

when the flood waters rise, 

when you swallow that chalky brine, 

choke on it for a second or two,

praying hopefully that it'll 

matter somehow, to someone,

some day, somewhere.