the staff of life
The staff of life
slapped across this child's legs
hard
hard enough to bruise
the apple of her …
her cheek, that's the word
barely wrapping
rotted teeth
dried encrusted tongue
that's lolled in her mouth
too long for the bends
too weak to cry
too cold for hunger
in Italy I read
stealing food to face starvation
isn't theft now
isn't a crime
but here it is
crime and punishment
can't touch me
imprison at least there are
purple fishcakes
or gruel or whatever
the cash equivalent from
the zero-hours cook
contracted to the catering company
contracted to g4s
contracted to the home service
spilling news that's
fair and balanced
telling us government soundbites
telling us feckless scroungers
taking stale bread from shelves
supermarket shelves
mostly filled with poisons
cunningly sold
to those
with no money to buy
the staff of life
7th May 2016, SG19 - food. Purple fishcakes were real, btw; one of the processing plants here in Hull, I
don't recall which, had a food dye accident in the late 70s. The resultant unsaleable product was sold to Hull
Prison
