Hunger

Hunger

Or Why I Ate the Chips

Any meal is extravagant

when it first starts

in the mind. This sudden

growling in the

belly is always un-

anticipated. What to feed

the beast? Shortbread

made with three ingredients

(but never mind, there’s the oven

to figure out), leftover

beef lasagna that

will take a hundred years

to defrost and properly

heat, a quick rip of

aluminum propylene and

the instant satiation of trans

fat and a reincarnation

of potatoes? Even cardboard

crackers will do at

this point. And sliced

crisp apples will never

be enough.

August 3, 2021

Photo by Jeff Siepman of Unsplash.

Day 2, Poem no. 4 for The Writing Oasis (Summer 2021) with Beth Kempton

NaPoWriMo#16: Wedding Ring and Nature (Two Poems)

NaPoWriMo or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.

Below are two poems in pantun, a traditional Malay poetry form.

Wedding Ring
by Justine C. Tajonera

The wedding ring sat quietly atop some books.
It quietly disappeared that same afternoon.
Between us, there have never been more than looks,
no proofs of love required, no vows under the moon.

Nature
by Justine C. Tajonera

I watched our pet hamster, Mindy, devour
two of her newborn pups one afternoon.
I ask if war and hunger and poverty are
things we inflict on children who are least immune.

NaPoWriMo#12: Nothing

NaPoWriMo or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.

Nothing
By Justine C. Tajonera

I am not accustomed to asking
for nothing. There is always a list of things
to be requested, acquired, sorted. Even
gratitude has its lists.

Nothing borders my life, creates the
edges, the breath between the hungers,
the immersion in the delightful noise.

I chase after the last note of the bell.
There are two breaths in between the end
of the sound and the beginning.

I forget that the end of the sound makes
the sound. One and the other are no
different and separate. If I lose you,
If I lose you, I will remember this truth.