He looked into his wallet and then into the face of his children.
Oliver looked out from their faces, thinned and paled by hunger,
Their sad eyes looked at under woolly hats and coat covered arm hugs.
—
His eyes watered and his empty belly grumbled as he opened
the last dull can of beans, cut the crust of curling bread into two,
watched the food disappear into hungry mouths opened like nesting chicks.
Not far away, plates were full with succulent salmon, rare steak,
beef, chicken vegetables, fried potatoes and mashed spuds, followed
by golden custard, french named cakes, apple pies and salted chocolate ices.
—-
Somewhere a mother scraped small crumbs from her sons bowl, sucking
them from the poor plastic spoon. In her head imagining the eggs tomorrow,
when the reduced Universal credit arrived, a meal, heat, then rancid bin search.
Not far away, a kitchen door ajar, while out of date food is thrown away,
in the waste; while far away, the icy hearted are having a party at number 10,
half eaten rich food slipped in a bin. They take from the poor to give to the rich.
—-
Clean, loved children crying themselves to sleep, hunger gnawing at their vitals,
holding onto the hope for tomorrow they’d be in heaven, food galore at the FoodBank,
bringing home food in plenty to be eked slowly to cover the schoolless, foodless weeks.
Miles away lives a callous rich man who can choose to give them enough or kill
them slowly by starvation and a rich woman minister who chooses to treat them as
alien pariahs, ignores the council of the wise, ignores deadly hunger, abuse and trafficking.
—–
Truth may come, but already the lies hold sway, the government culled the media.
So, how will the hungry children have their voices heard? The starving, the weakened
the oppressed, hidden from sight, are crying out, lost in the lies trumpeted out by Tory press.
======
Yes, minister, the numbers in poverty are atrocious
but we are doing what we can, watch us.
We’ve paid the rich and they are wealthy too.
Tis tricky, the trickle down effect?
‘It won’t.’ A lie from long ago.
The poor are always with us – but they
don’t
donate
to
our
party.