Grow Food Eat

Merry Christmas

Pictures from around the world,
crying babies, famine, plagues,
FGM in thirty countries
I wonder how the mothers could
let it be done to their daughters.

I send an image
of dancing kittens
to neglected friends.

Female choices as sharp
as a severance –
dreams from reality,
a peel of love from need.
They must want their girls to grow
but know they can't get large enough
to unbalance their worlds.

Pry the chocolates
the kids forgot
from the advent calendar.

How does it feel to keep hearing
your child’s hungry cries?
Food, shelter, water, a way out,
what if none of those
was ever in your gift?
What happens to their anger?

I pile another plate
of unnecessary protein on our table,
family groans.

I nod at the abundance knowing
when I say ‘eat’ this year
I haven't restricted it to
those in the room.