THE HUNGER
Christopher Pierce
A soup, a salad, and a sandwich,
my perfect trifecta. I eat
while I watch the lions of
the Masai Mara eat the ass
out of a carcass still half
a wildebeest, one hoof kicking.
In the copse of acacia trees
a bateleur folds its red face
into its shoulders and waits.
The painted wolves pace,
spirals frustrated in the grass,
the spotted hyenas foiling
at the edges of the kill,
the black-backed jackals
lunge and lose their nerve,
all of them salivating, gyrating,
squirming closer. I dip my spoon
into the ichor of the tomato.
I wonder, if God was good,
why did he design the throat
to be obscenely soft, the belly eager
to open? Why did he fill the corpse
with blood that steams so sweet?
Why did he create beasts that subsist
on suffering? The agony of the devoured
is always greater than the pleasure
of the devourer. I take another bite
and am full of nothing.
Author Bio
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Christopher Pierce is a writer from Dallas, Oregon. He graduated from Portland Community College in 2026 with a 4.0 and transferred to Oregon State University to pursue a double degree in creative writing and history. He is a husband and a proud father of two beautiful daughters, Destiny and Daenerys, whom he loves with all of his heart. His favorite pastime is hiking the Oregon backcountry in search of hiraeth, the Welsh word for the longing and homesickness for a place or time that no longer exists or never was. A pain-joy. He believes in empathy, embracing difficulty, doing the right thing, and fighting for a future for all living creatures. His writing is dedicated to his wife Brittany, his daughters, and to saving the world they will inherit.