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POEM
Hungry People

Bonnie Beldan Thomson

Hungry people
fantasize
about the smell of food:
long
for the aroma of baking bread
or roasting meat,
yearn
for a sniff of cinnamon.

Hungry people
imagine
cupping the firm globe of an apple
in the palms of their hands,
remember textures
like a flurry of rice with bits of vegetables and meat,
mounds of soft mashed potatoes,
slide of pasta down the throat.

Hungry people try
to remember
the spurt of flavour when teeth crush a freshly-picked strawberry,
the pull of leathery pizza, strings of cheese.

We are hungry, Lord,
for the feeling that we matter,
for a sense that someone cares.

We fantasize
about doing a deed that would change the course of the world,
about making a difference in the life of even one person,
about doing a single thing that feels worthwhile in a day.

We imagine
a fresh taste to change the bitterness of failure,
people smiling and stopping to chat, understanding
that we want to be seen,
someone to wipe away the dull film of sadness
so that colours are vivid again
and cut glass sparkles in sunlight.

We are lonely people
who long for encircling arms
to hold us up when we have no strength to stand alone,
to give us a safe resting place
where we can sleep.

We are hungry, Lord,
not just for food
but for love.

Feed us, we pray.

Bonnie Beldan Thomson lives in Scarborough, Ont.

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Last modified May 4, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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