Food strike
Mustafa Abdulmalek Al-Sumaidi: Poem ‘Food strike’
“Why strike against me, food?”
Such was my stunned question,
as it whispered to me not to eat it.
All of a sudden,
I swallowed hard, my throat dry,
from the sting of a mere half-day’s hunger,
while in a silent soliloquy:
“Ah, I understand you now.”
A crowd of hollow-faced shadows,
bellies bound with stones,
and the long-starved,
rose before my tear-filled eyes.
A hunger strike neither nourishes
nor satisfies.
It will not save a starving soul
that has endured for months.
I finished my meal absentmindedly,
as if to breathe a prayer:
If only it could be digested
in someone else’s stomach.
Mustafa Abdulmalek Al-Sumaidi