Farm State

*Best read sideways on mobile devices*

Sometimes when I eat, I cry.
I don’t know why.
It’s not the hot fries, nor onion in my eyes.
It seems to come from a deeper place,
way below the surface.
Each movement of my mouth
draws another tear down my cheek.
I weep for those without and weak.
Fighting for a single grain amongst others just as meek.
Only to witness food relegated to waste.
Scrapped off the plate into a rubbish bin
or pet food tin by some fat man
because he can afford to buy a bigger belt.
Never felt the stomach pains
while striving for personal wealth and selfish gains.
Yet,
Silos are stuffed and burst like fountains
while kids cringe and shrivel
From the shore to the mountains.
Grocers greedily manipulate markets,
reducing producing farmer’s profits;
convincing consumers that labeling fads alert us to the bad
Without concern for the unlearned
who has little knowledge of nutrition
Nor wants to pronounce the mouthful of chemical nomenclature
Glucose, Dextrose and Fructose
Just different conformations of simple sugars
necessary for all life.
But,
Scientific confusion causes regulatory strife
Concerning how humans should eat and what food is right.
Answers not found in piles of standardized tests
or found in the aisles of natural grocers
and that home built chicken nest.
Without question we are out of balance
And strive to survive by meddling with nature’s lessons
Forced to confessions for wars that kill flora and fauna
Stalking our “game” in a concrete sauna
Stuck in a blind to avoid the peckish

Food is fundamental to societal harmony.
We must rethink about the famine we see
And perhaps it may shed a tear for thee.
Hunger is more than war, lack of education
or an empty plate.
Insecurity becomes the people’s fate
because we’ve created this subsidy-based farm state.