Hungry Ghosts

"No substantial famine has ever occurred in a democratic country - no matter how poor." ~ Amartya Sen

A gaunt shadow gazes across the field.
A cold wind walks along the cabin walls.
Her eyes fall back into orbits unsealed,
her clothes ragged as rent burial palls.
Hunger has hammered her heart in a cage.
Her belly is curved like an empty bowl,
and her son appears of much older age
like leather stretched over a gentle soul.
The sky is stained with beetroots and honey
like the borscht she made in happier years
fore grain fell like ashes on Povolzhye
and turned the rain into rivers of tears.
A broken dish bleeds upon the table.
I see the ghost of her sweet son, Abel.

The Russian famine of 1921-22, also known as Povolzhye famine, was a severe famine in Bolshevik Russia, which began in early spring 1921 and lasted through 1922.  This famine killed an estimated 5 million, primarily affecting the Volga and Ural River regions, and forced peasants to resort to cannibalism.

Author's Note

Reviews

[Beccy]

We would do well to remember such tragedies. Democracy is on the retreat; the mad dogs loosed of their leads. It only takes a broken link or two in the chain for history to repeat itself.

These are prescient lines.

Beccy.

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

You are so right, Beccy; and I couldn't agree with you more. Thanks for the visit.

[gram linski]

powerful and poetic, Linda, and still we have famine today, how can you have starving populations and food mountains and billionaires,

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

This is what happens when psychopaths seize power and you have an unarmed, starving populace. It's a tragedy of the worst kind.

[Robert Trakofler]

Many societies have, over the years, been very efficient in killing but few have been as astute at killing their own people as Russia has:) The cog in the wheel mentality at times truly expresses the value of the cogs. when i think of the ghosts of those of whom have starved I feel an intense sense of loud disparity booming bellows weakened to a resignation reduced to an almost silent cry

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Thank you, Robert. There is a black emptiness within the souls of men who perpetrate this kind of devastation.

[R.E. Ray]

Linda Marie, the Amartya Sen qoute, and your poem remind us we should be grateful for the prosperity and relative good health we enjoy in the U.S. and other developed countries. We take so much for granted, especially food and medicine. At most major intersections in our towns and cities, we can find at least one restaurant and/or a 24-hour drug store. Food is plentiful, and the current generation has no reference point for such suffering.

Your poem is an literary snapshot of human suffering, and the photo underscores the horrors, especially the loss of loved ones. Years ago, I met a lady who lived in Europe as a young girl during World War II (Poland, I recall), and I heard about similar experiences. Poems like this remind us we live in blessed times (especially compared to past centuries). Another remarkable work.

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Thank you. We are blessed indeed.

[Kesch (Finding Julia)]

Wow! This is quite a haunting write, enjoyed this write

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Thank you.

[Chris]

Being "hungry" when you have a choice is different then when you haven't... and what IS "food" in thought and in real? Todays are ageless afteral and they are always someone's tomorrow.

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Thank you, Chris.

[John the Baptist]

This is a disturbing poem, almost as disturbing as the photos of the famine. The poet uses imagery very skillfully, so that we can almost see those pictures in our minds. The abab rhyme scheme is most effective here, relentlessly holding up the grim scenes so that we don't forget them. Sadly, the story was repeated in 1931-32 in the Ukraine. Ironically, the Communist Internationale begins, "Rise up, ye prisoners of starvation!"

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

You are correct. The images from that time are unbelievably disturbing. That's why I chose not to use them here. I also wanted to approach this carefully, so as not to lean into the grotesque. I think it's horrid that any government would put their people in this position. It's unconscionable. That this happens today in North Korea and no one can do anything about it is heartbreaking. It's hard for a starved populace to rise up when they hardly have the energy to breathe. Thank you for reading.