The Toy of Greed – Duncan Bristow

(A Sonnet)

Does hunger know of love and hate, disdain?
Or does the empty belly just regret,
Its sorry state, all others to forget
And stumble on through life in empty pain.
The apathy of affluence is plain,
And our false platitudes only infect,
The fiery pride that makes the poor reject
The gifts, which cause their heads to bow in shame.
The truth of giving is not in the word,
Creating servile hopes and stifled need.
Nor found in righteous acts for all to see,
Which multiplies the pain of the injured.
The path that leads away from all our greed,
Is more, a little bit of you and me.