why I don’t feed children

children all
around me now, their
eyes too full of
ideology, painting me in
shades of
expectations I have yet to
consider, they
ladder me in attempt to
raise my short
stature, to
enhance their needless
climb
over
me

these children all
around me
screaming “Fraud!”
at me
now
with the same
voice they
once
thanked me for
as if
I gave them a
secret use
of it, only to discover
not

they are
children all too hungry

psgates