World Hunger
By Amy
An Animal Rights Poem from All-Creatures.org

World Hunger
By Amy

A stifling heat dries the earth,
but still we walk to quench our thirst.
Water here is scarcely found -
a muddied puddle in the ground.
But this is all we have to drink,
so drink we must, no time to think,
no time to hear our stomachs cries,
as food is even rarer come by.
Every day, the same as last,
we all grow weak, we all fade fast.
I see my people drop like flies,
as starvation welcomes their demise.
And many a time I writhe in a pain
so great I suspect it will leave me insane.
Today is the day I awaited with dread,
the ground is my tomb and soon I'll be dead.
My body's too fragile to keep up the fight
and the darkness now creeps and smothers the light.
What happened next, I do not recall,
not the stretcher, nor the doctor - no, nothing at all.
I awoke in a place unknown to my senses,
around people with smiles that lowered my defences,
"Don't worry," said one, "these people are kind,
they bring food to your belly, and peace to your mind."
They went on to tell me why they were here,
and though still weak, I pricked up my ears
"We want to do the best we can,
and help the sickness plaguing man,
all on earth should live as one,
we share this world beneath the sun,
and every life should have this chance,
so we bring to you this food from plants;
it costs the least and thus, we feed more,
if we all worked this way there'd be fresh food galore
for all of the world, and not just the west,
but the majority there are selfish at best.
I'll tell you a thing which may shock your core,
sadden you deeply, send your jaw to the floor;
there is enough food grown to feed us all,
billions of us, from sun rise to fall,
and if you're wondering where it goes...
it goes to where the money flows,
to mass produced livestock, as animal feed,
to produce the meat people claim they need.
But need is a word they don't understand,
greed, is the monster holding their hand,
if only they thought of the food on their plate,
then last night your family may have ate.
I pray that soon they will open their eyes,
their mind and their hearts and help end the cries
of pain and of suffering, from a world so unjust,
we can make it stop. We can, and we must!"