-- Another Kind of Hunger --

By John Herlihy

Consider another kind of hunger,

The hunger to touch, be touched.

That lies within the heart of desire,

Before we ever have a name for it.

It rises from the depths of emptiness,

Whose horizon offers nothing beyond.

No one ever tells you how it feels,

Longing breaks open an empty shell.

The night was never so dark as this,

The ocean was never so vast as this.

Then, like dawn, the stranger arrived,

Not as a stranger did she last for long.

Miraculous when stranger turns friend,

Blessed the moment stranger turns lover.

She looked up and saw his shoulder,

His eyes were looking down upon her.

Her head moved, she leaned slightly,

Ever so slightly, then she leaned more.

Until her head rested on his shoulder,

Now wanting more than anything before.

A hunger for freedom, a hunger for love,

To ride the wind on the wings of a dove.

Hunger as shadow in the dust of moonlight,

To ride moonbeams in the luminous night.

Hunger as thirst in the wake of our need,

Hunger in the ground of the soul as a seed.

Hunger bitterness that makes things sweet,

Hunger that makes satisfaction feel complete.

The cravings of hunger conquered by degrees,

When hungry, a loaf of bread all that one sees.

Yes, there is another kind of hunger,

That lies within sounding distant thunder.

Love born of such loneliness and solitude,

To fill the cavernous heart with plenitude.

Love tempered by feelings of tenderness,

To replace the pains of hunger with fulness.

We never know where the wind may blow,

We never know until the moment we know.

To love, be loved, ready for life’s challenge,

Hunger obliterated by love’s sweet revenge.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Saturday 19 August 2023