Hungry - Dec 11 2025

 

Hungry

Dec 11 2025

All the times I’ve said I’m hungry

but didn’t know I wasn’t.

Hunger, not appetite. 

Not a growling stomach.

Not something one says.

And not just habit

 —  the Pavlovian state of mind

when mealtime comes

and you feel desire —

but rather, truly deprived.

We debase language

while sneering at the suffering

of those who really are.

The kids with toothpick arms

and dully staring eyes,

the loose pale skin

distended gut.

And the babies, most of all,

who are too weak to cry,

nursing hungrily

at dry withered breasts.

 

You can only survive 3 days

without water;

but deprived of food 

a couple of months

  — which is hardly skipping lunch

or eating late.

And long enough without

or so I’m told

the craving subsides;

you hunger

but more as background noise

than blaring trumpets. 

Sure, you dream of food

and imagine great meals,

but the craving is muted.

It’s as if the body

out of self-preservation

has resigned itself to fate,

conserving energy

by suppressing its drive 

to seek food out.

So “hungry” to eat,

“starving” cuz you missed a meal?

And even if you actually were

it doesn’t feel

the way you think it would.

Anyway, we’re too well fed 

to get close.

The fussy eaters clearly aren’t.

Growing kids sort of are,

but they’re still inexplicably picky

 — plain noodles

and frozen fish-sticks

all they’ll consent to eat.

While adolescent boys can’t be trusted;

they’re bottomless

and exceptions shouldn’t count.

I know   . . . I was one

once, long ago.

Hunger

is the salt and spice of food;

when you’re hungry

everything tastes good.

Which is how you truly know.

You’ll eat uncooked rice

and animal fodder, 

chew young leaves

to fool yourself,

gnaw on roots

for as long as you can dig.

Pick maggots

from infected wounds,

then scarf them down 

like prized delicacies.

So tell me

are you hungry now?

In the prosperous West, we suffer from both obesity and egregious food waste (up to 40% wasted between the farm field and the back of the fridge). Our bodies’ satiety signals no longer work. We snack all day long, and mostly on ultra-processed food. Which just makes us crave more and things worse.

Hunger is a state of mind, and we can easily go all our lives never once having truly felt it. Yet how often do say we’re “hungry”? A classic case of word inflation. And unworthy of the well-fed and ungrateful.