Sorrow Eaters and American Health Care

 a Poem About People Who Feed on Sorrow

[Note: The book I reference in this poems is called The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. It won the prestigious Newbery Award this year. I recommend it. Like George Orwell's 1984 it seems appropriate in these times.]

Dear Person Who Opens the Mail,

I read a book last week,about a village

That had a day of sacrifice.

On that day, the youngest child

A baby was taken to the woods

And left there to appease a witch.

But there was really not a witch.

Only a woman in the village

Who needed sorrow.

A sorrow-eater.

She made up the story about the witch

To make people feel bereft and afraid

The better to feed her appetite.

Just a fantasy book, right?

No sorrow-eaters in America.

And yet, we must have sorrow

People who can’t pay for insurance must suffer

Personal responsibility, and corporate profits

And They Have to Learn Somehow, and all that.

But, would it be so bad if

We didn’t have to be thrown in a dark hole of fear?

Live one tragedy away from ruin?

Is there really a better way to spend our money?