Sonnet #379

 Give a man a fish and let him eat for a day

Don't believe the lie of a lifetime of fishing

This is an excuse for the rich to keep riching

Until the belly is full the words will not stay

The only word hunger learns is please, please...

You hold this power over others: they remember

And when their belly is full, at last, late November

The fire at your hearth will seem to tease

It would be, in their mind, fair for you to freeze

Fair for you to know the fear in the bones

When children look up and cough and wheeze

And the car doesn't start and the sticks and stones

that they carry inside will grumble and heave...

Feed a man first. Then, lead him towards a home.