HUNGER

By Daniel Thompson

Uneasy sky

The starts burdened

By our wishes

Below

An ordinary seaman

Of little faith

And new found

Liberty

Falls through

The waves of a dream

To the uncharted

Darkness ashore

There

Young men

Whitman would

Have loved

Old companions, too

Veterans of the rain

With more tattoos

Than teeth

And all of us

Fed on irony and dream

Who’ve rubbed shoulders

With the shadows

Of our fathers

In lieu of loaves

And fishes

Eat Baby Ruth candy bars

On the desolate

Streets of Duluth

This

After a lighthouse

Soul service in which

Guitar player tells

Sins of his youth

Drank, ran around

Wanted by the law

Till he found salvation

Sweet in the verse

Make a joyful noise

Unto the Lord, then we

Toothless in a nation

Armed to the teeth

Got chocolate from Jesus

Walking the sea

Testing the waters

With this

Ordinary seaman

Of little faith

And new found

Liberty

Who waits

Not for Heaven

But the workers

To strike

Who hungers

To be home

From the sea

Daniel Thompson

Copyright Homeless Grapevine Issue #13, Cleveland, Ohio