food banks

community action: a poetic trilogy inspired by the work of Saul Alinsky (Part 2)

work
meager pay
dreams once moved you
now they are like
broken wings
barren fields
the people
yes the people who labor
where the rewards are few
know uncertainty
know fear
know hunger

community
working class
civic responsibility moves you
for a few can feed a multitude
loaves and fishes
lilies of the field
the people
yes, the people who care
where rewards are few
easing uncertainty
easing fear
easing hunger

for wherever
two or more are gathered to serve
a community can form
to aid their neighbors
when capitalism fails

Paul Cech has been writing poetry since 1970. Several of his poems have been published as Saturday Poems in the Pittsburgh- Post Gazette and the Thomas Merton Center of Pittsburgh has published several of his poems in NewPeople. Read other articles by Paul.