I’m not complaining I should say
Right off. In fact, I rather like
The hunger in an abstruse way;
Anticipate its subtle spike
At 3:00 or 4:00 each afternoon
And tell myself I’m eating soon
But meantime feel the hollow gnaw
And sense in it some deeper law:
The law of appetite gone wrong;
Of taste deceived and senses soured;
All common sense quite overpowered;
But sense as well that all along
A deeper hunger, kinder, graced
Has all false appetites effaced.
Jeffrey Essmann is an essayist and poet living in New York. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, among them Agape Review, America Magazine, Dappled Things, the St. Austin Review, U.S. Catholic, Grand Little Things, Heart of Flesh Literary Journal, and various venues of the Benedictine monastery with which he is an oblate. He is editor of the Catholic Poetry Room page on the Integrated Catholic Life website.