A young girl stumbles across the road

Searching for answers.

Her tiny eyes scour her neighborhood begging for reasons

Why her parents hold tired smiles, desperately trying to

Relieve her stresses,

Yet their smiles never reach their eyes;

Why her older brother's stomach wakes her in the night

As she dreams of fantastical houses built of wood or stone;

Why some people with rosy, full cheeks seem foreign,

While her friends harbor pale, thin ones.

"What is this creature's name?"

She wonders.

Who is it that causes the pain, strife, agony, stress, hunger

Around her?

 

A mother lurks behind shadows,

Approaching the nearby orphanage.

Maybe if her job had been substantial enough,

This creature wouldn't be stealing her baby.

Maybe she and her son could prosper and work their way up?

But no, she chastises herself,

The monster won't corrupt his life like

It has hers.

If he's placed in this haven,

He will be saved

From its grasp.

 

A grocer wanders home to his children,

Hoping beyond reality that

He will maitain a constant job

For at least this week.

Fear-striken hearts roam his house,

Their hungry eyes searching for anything concrete.

Upset by his failure to his family,

He continues to trudge on,

Monster at his heels.