Hunger Dreams by Ellen Waterson

My hunger is always hungry. It devours 

my hopes, gobbles my curiosity, gnaws 

the insides of my burning belly. I’ve no 

energy for school, for friends. I’m worried 

my mother and father can’t make ends 

meet. Sometimes I think if I could just 

silence the thunderous sound my dreams 

create, then maybe hunger wouldn’t notice 

I’m here, would leave me alone to imagine 

an unfettered future, to picture myself 

an inventor or a dancer pirouetting across 

the wind; or to pretend, starting now, I 

have all I need to just be ordinary. Oh, what 

a luxury … to hunger for things other than 

food. But when I’m hungry, I can only 

think of one thing, hunger, and my dreams 

are reduced to a whisper. 

A story I heard once scared me. It was 

about a town where everyone had 

everything they wanted; where nothing 

bad ever happened; everyone was happy, 

rich, healthy, and always would be … so long 

as all agreed to keep one starving, naked 

child caged in the basement of the city hall. 

They didn’t have to visit, only to admit, 

to avow they knew “it” was captive there. 

I am that “it,” for “it” is the child of greed. Take 

away greed and the world can feed everyone. 

I am that “it,” for “it” is the child of the blind 

eye. Look into the faces, spaces, and truths
we deny. There is where the sacred resides. 

Learn more about Ellen and her poems on her website: http://www.writingranch.com

Ellen Waterson , Oregon Poet Laureate, recites her poem “Hunger Dreams” at NeighborImpact’s food warehouse grand opening in January 2025.