Virtues and Vices

Gluttony

A newborn's pained cries echo through the air,

With her mother trying to stretch the remaining formula there.

With an empty pantry and a resigned sigh;

She offers her child a new life, and a goodbye.

Too many mouths in too small a house.

With the eldest willfully giving up their portion.

Always falling asleep hungry, yet stays as quiet as a mouse.

Why should their sibling suffer from their parents' desertion?

Falling to pieces once home from the store.

"We just don't have enough, we need to save more,"

But for that weakened body and fragile mind,

The way the world worked was never that kind.

A quiet sob pierces the night air,

from a young teen holding a hatred-filled glare.

The figure in the mirror was not their own,

but rather an echo of what they felt they had known.

"Stop stuffing your face" "All you do is eat!"

The voices of parents and "friends" begin to repeat.

For what am I if not taking from those unable to resist the urge.

Some to binge, some to starve, yet some still to purge.