If Each One of Us
A sonnet
by Marco Katz Montiel / June 8th, 2025
Six thousand five hundred seventy-five
Kids die each day just from malnutrition.
Those hungry children would now be alive
If we had made a small contribution.
That’s two million three hundred ninety-nine
Year after year and could even be more.
It seems as though that should be the headline
Ev’ry day for those who want to keep score.
As a daily headline, this would make sense
And although the thought might seem a bit wild
Possibly, in some future perfect tense
We will have done something to help each child.
Europe, North America, Japan: send
Fifty dollars each year and this could end.
Marco Katz Montiel composes poetry and prose in Spanish, English, and musical notes. He went to college late, and then alienated one university by publishing about bigotry on campus and got kicked to the curb by two others for his union activities. Still, Marco managed to graduate and even publish a book on music and literature with Palgrave. His essays, poems, and stories appear in
Ploughshares,
Jerry Jazz Music,
English Studies in Latin America,
Copihue Poetry,
Camino Real,
WestWard Quarterly,
Lowestoft Chronicle,
Dissident Voice, and in the anthologies
Cartas de desamor y otras adicciones,
There’s No Place, and the
Capital City Press Anthology.
Read other articles by Marco Katz, or
visit Marco Katz's website.
This article was posted on Sunday, June 8th, 2025 at 8:00am and is filed under Poetry.
