A Study of Need

What is need?

Is it the halting stutter of a
big-eyed child,
uttering moist reactions to the
tyrant of his hungry belly?

Is it the jingling shake of the
panhandler's cup,
the beggar's trashy rhythms
crying out from his duct-tape radio?

Is it the uneasy,
tomcat grin
of the Machine-man in his hospital bed,
another's grisly surprise his great salvation?

It is that rough thread that binds us together,
so securely in our places, a marionette nation,
and yet it is the pinocchio drive to cut the strings.

Erich Campbell

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