Looking at Poverty

Need
Thirst, hunger
Hollow eyed children
Turn to crime to fill bellies
Want

The End of Summer scavenger hunt has as prompt #6 – Write an Oddquain about poverty. The Oddquain is a short, usually unrhymed poem consisting of seventeen syllables distributed 1, 3, 5, 7, 1 in five lines. So this is in keeping with the short Haiku inspired poetry that the first 6 prompts have focused on.

Watching the black and white film version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as a child really made an impression on me. In fact it gave me nightmares! The rattling chains of Bob Marley and the depiction of Scrooge’s grave (with the eerie music) was of no account. The scene with the ghost of Christmas Present where beneath his robe are two starving children. The ghost proclaims, “They are Man’s. This boy is Ignorance, this girl is Want. Beware them both, but most of all, beware this boy.” That was what haunted me. It was a very visceral depiction that echoed the story of St. Vincent de Paul as told in the publication Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, “He went through the streets of Paris at night seeking the children who were left there to die. Once robbers rushed upon him, thinking he carried a treasure, but when he opened his cloak they recognized him and his burden and fell at his feet.”

I was taught that poverty was man-made and not “ordained by God” though there are some who believe that misfortune, illness, and poverty are the result of judgements from God. That said it is also incumbent on me and you and everyone on this planet to work to lift the afflicted. A two pronged approach of education and charity can do wonders. I would posit that another area that we need to address in the fight against poverty is one of social justice – the rooting out of racism, bigotry, economic subjugation, and even voter suppression. Only when we have that kind of society will we see a near elimination of poverty. Only when we can lift up each other can we walk together. (Yes, I admit that I wrote the prompts with those issues I’m passionate about in mind. I hope you can find something in the prompts to feel passionate about…)