Patrick T. Reardon

Hungry One

Hungry one tells me what to do.

Edge brick wall to doorway. Soft up steps.

Leave open escapes. Set up peripherals.


Hungry one sets my alarm

— sharp flashes of flesh and sinew before motion.

I hug to my chest.


Hungry one is a jealous god.


My twin knows when I sit and when I stand.

I am where he is.


Times, I must needs corner Hungry One.

Listen him to reason. Listen him.


Times, I must needs encase Hungry One

in deep-sea suit to keep him quiet —

no matter the extra weight on my back.


He neither sows nor does he reap.


Back, before, he saved me

with his lust and thirst, his yearn and yen.


He dragged me to flee

the prison I was born into.

He showed me how to

burrow under the aluminum-siding fence,

dodge the searchlights of constant night,

distract the commandants with grovel acquiescences.

We are always escaping.


Patrick T. Reardon, a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, is the author of ten books, including the poetry collections Requiem for David (Silver Birch Press) and Darkness on the Face of the Deep (Kelsay).His memoir in prose poems Puddin’: The Autobiography of a Baby is forthcoming from Third World Press, and his chapbook The Lost Tribes will be published in January 2022, by Gray Book Press. His poetry has appeared in America, Burningwood Literary Journal, Rhino, Meat for Tea, Under a Warm Green Linden, and many other journals.