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THE HUNGER WALL
from The Hunger Wall (1995)

After walking to the bridge at Karlova,

we found the river where at dusk the swans

dipped their beaks into the falls for sanctuary.

The trees closed in for shade. We gazed

through willows to the opposite hill, a single

light from a room growing thick with sadness.

Solemn smoke now cooked the evening meal.

We were just about to treat our hunger well

when, out of sunlight, undeclared,

a shaded mass of stone began to stretch

its neck along the slope.

It would scan the water for a quarter hour

before the foliage rubbed its throat,

some internal hunger now assuaged

for only moments, then again, the impulse

thumbed like whalebone on a drum.

The poplars began to rustle. A hawk

spiraling, like an aspen deep in chatter,

betrayed its nest to block the sun.

The dam below rose up to boulder water

as if to show how easily wars are won.

They feed the hunger wall, the waitress points,

the fingers in her skirt rubbing coins

her hand is shoring up to feed the past.

I don't want the poor to endure me, she says

King Charles said to those he paid, as he watched

their faces, building borders, hunger for a wall,

as she faced the smoldering Vltava, watching the hunger well.

"The Hunger Wall" © 1995 James Ragan
from The Hunger Wall, Grove Press, 1995

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