To Eat Or Not To Eat

To Eat Or Not To Eat
© Surazeus
2018 09 05

To eat or not to eat, that is the question,
whether everyone in our nation-state
should be able to eat nutritious meals
whether or not they contribute through work,
or should be exiled from communities
as parasites who take from lazy greed.

How can we reconcile opposing views
how we can best expand our social state
so our food-production machine supports
every person who shares this fertile land?

Since we were small communities of farmers,
struggling to survive in hostile waste land,
each person is expected to contribute
energy of their labor to produce
enough food so everyone may eat well,
while people who would take more than they give
are exiled to the wilderness of hunger.

Some argue that only those who work hard,
generating food and machines from dirt,
should be allowed to eat nutritious meals,
so they should receive as much as they give,
while those who never contribute through work
to general welfare of our noble tribe
weaken our nation so we could be conquered
by others who seek to control our land.

Some argue that everyone should have food,
since everyone contributes to welfare
of our whole tribe in many different ways
thus everyone should be allowed to eat
because some take longer to find their craft.

If we exile everyone who cannot
contribute as much as we think they should,
we might lose the most innovative minds
who could develop better ways to work
that produce food with more efficient methods,
so we could lose their unknown benefits
since we could not recognize hidden talents.

Eating plate of spaghetti with flaked cheese,
and sipping blackberry wine from glass chalice,
I gaze out the window of my small home
at clouds shining over vast continent
where millions of people who work eat well
while millions of people without homes
starve on the streets because they have no food.

I hitchhiked across the country six years
sea to shining sea, singing with guitar,
on street corners where people gave me money
because I was singing to earn my supper,
so I could buy meat sandwiches to eat.

Now I make maps of the world where we live
to help soldiers defend our fertile land
against invaders, who want to control
enormous fields where farmers grow rich food,
in clean office where people give me money
because I am mapping to earn my supper,
so I buy food for my family to eat.

Shall we all gather in Temple of Truth
to feast on rich food our farmers produce,
share epic about wise philosophers
whose ideas form the steady foundation
on which we have built our civilization,
and sing hymns to praise the Mother of Bread?

Wise Ceres, kind Goddess of Cereal,
bring everyone in your sheltering temple
and give each person fresh hot loaf of bread
with fruit from our great land of milk and honey
so we may feast on body of the Earth,
brothers and sisters of one human race.