Right Time to Dine
When Poor Have Something to Eat
We are never called for dinner.
Everyone lingers close to the kitchen,
Waiting quietly for meal to be ready.
Does that inner clock say: time to eat?
Or just hunger?
We must stay around the house
When dinner is served at last.
If one is not there,
Then one is not hungry
Or found some means to eat.
Whoever would think of take-out?
It’s not a notion here, not allowed.
Money spent for one person’s meal
Are ample for whole house to feed.
Alas, we have meal tonight.
We thank God.
We are blessed with sustenance
That might not be here at all.
We sit down in circle
Around soup in small clay pot
And a plate with eba.
Not a royal feast, only what family got.
We eat fast, dip into pot in turns.
Full or not, we stop when a little left.
For the youngest to finish all.
He’s assumed not to be fast as rest.
Comfort is not only luxury.
It’s peace, we’re together and safe.
It’s relief, we had something to eat today.
It’s solace, we didn’t go hungry to bed.
About the Creator
Joseph June
Come, discover the true Nigeria with me
Each story is true story about my country and my people.
Being poor has double meaning.
One is to live in poverty.
The other is to live without hope and dreams.
I have hope and dreams.
Therefore I am rich.
Keep reading
More stories from Joseph June and writers in Poets and other communities.
Comments (1)
The poem is both sad and hopeful. I wish you had said a little more about who you are in "About the author". Is it a true story or just a general observation. Some lives are definitely harder in different parts of the world.