Saturday, November 16, 2024

Appetite - Oct 10 2024

 

Appetite

Oct 10 2024


I often wonder

whether it’s hunger, or appetite.

Want

or desire.

Need

or basic neediness.


And then, the moral high ground

of renunciation,

determined to keep yourself

blessedly chaste,

free

of corrupting passion,

satisfied

with what you have.

Or, as a Buddhist would say

free of attachment.


Although I understand that after awhile

a starving man

stops feeling the pangs.

That there’s a clarity of mind.

That he feels cleansed.


Gluttony, though, I know well;

so stuffed, even the sight of food

disgusts you.

But to be past the point of hunger

is beyond me,

here, In the land of abundance,

where we’ve become so inured

to ease and excess

gratitude

is hard to come by.


Yet desire still burns

so powerfully

I fear it will consume me.

How irrepressible my greed

how fiercely I crave

how much I envy.

There is a hollow in me

I seem helpless to fill.


No comments: