The fat god squats
in the market-place
shitting out lies
and we feed him
more he says,
more
and we feed him
we feed him our hours
more he says
more
we feed him our sleep
we feed him our dreams
we feed him the swift-footed moments
of our children’s games
we feed him our children
more
we feed him meadows
bright with flowers
we feed him mountains
we feed him the river
shimmering with life
we feed him the sky
more
we feed him our souls
we feed him the elephant
the tiger the rhino
we feed him the eagle
the butterfly the bee
we feed him the sweet time
of holding a new-born
we feed him scurrying mice
we feed him the great singing whale
we feed him the ocean
we feed him the scent of bluebells
we feed him the taste of apples
tart in the mouth
we feed him our old ones
more
we feed
we feed
and the lie he tells us
is that he is real
and we swallow it
in our hunger
to feed
but we are still empty
more we say
more.
Sherry is manning (womanning?) the barricades at Earthweal this week, and asking for our poems of protest. I’m not even sure what I’m protesting against here – it’s too big. I started off with small specifics, but at the end of the day it’s the way the economy trumps people in too many western societies, and the way we have got caught up in this endless treadmill of consumerist crap to feed that economy. Covid-19 has thrown a lot of things into very sharp relief for me. I won’t go into it here, but I’m interested to see what’s bubbling under.
Sarah writes poems 
Wow. What powerful stuff. I hope many, many people read your poem. It could change consciousness.
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What an opening tercet! Often protest poems can delay us in some way but each time I read the word more I was ready to continue with the request. More was opening up my thoughts; more was making me ask why that more, and that more. I’d rate this protest poem highly as a very well conceived protest poem.
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YES!!! I echo Suzanne, a poem to change consciousness. My friend and mentor, now in the spirit world, long talked about the Myth of More. We got sucked into the maw of capitalism, at a cost we are beginning to comprehend. This is one of my favourite poems EVER, and it deserves a wide audience. It is brilliant.
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wow loved this. the peace it spreads is wonderful.
thank you
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Well, you nail it with a very big hammer here. The fat god in the marketplace feeds on desire, yearning, greed — a canker of the Western soul which found such fatty fuel when he started burning coal … Sorry for the belabored comment last time, great job here. – Brendan
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Truth to power. (K)
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YES!!!
Elizabeth
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Wow and fabulous. Loved it from its gutsy start right through to the cleverly inverted end. So so good.
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The poem exposes capitalism so perfectly. The sole reason where we are now.
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Moloch, Moloch, Moloch!
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WOW Sarah- simply amazing.
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I love the shape of this poem, Sarah, and the opening lines that set the tone – honest and bullshit-free! These lines touched me deeply:
‘we feed him our sleep
we feed him our dreams
we feed him the swift-footed moments
of our children’s games
we feed him our children’,
and
‘we feed him the scent of bluebells
we feed him the taste of apples
tart in the mouth
we feed him our old ones’
and the way the isolated lines and repetition emphasise the central message.
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Wow! You’ve written something so powerful here. You’ve located the enemy. Is the enemy us? We feed and feed and the fat god stays hungry.
Well done!!
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This is a great piece. I have an Instagram account dedicated to environmental activism that i post writing on every Friday and i was wondering if i could have your permission to share this. I think its a powerful comment on consumerism.
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Oh yes, that would be great. I’m glad you liked it.
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Let me know the details! 😊
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Really enjoyed this, Sarah, there is such ease to the poem. Once the initial theme or premise is established, the rest just flows, It must have been a pleasure to write. It makes its point but never strays into prose or diatribe. Well done!
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