Hunger Alone

There is, between the pirate
And the ghost, the slenderest
Third shadow haunting them both—

History introduced them
To each other, the template
And the sweaty example—

Hunger, the essence of life
If there is such, as the worst
Punishment the dead can get—

None of the joys of life, all
Of the wanting, sense of lack,
Insufficiency—hunger.

Meanwhile, on the other side,
The pirate illustrating how hunger
Loves proximity to death—

Cutlasses, Jolly Rogers,
Consumption is destruction.
To live entails destruction.

And in the middle? The third?
Too faint even for a ghost,
This last shadow illustrates

Why dark matter’s too tricky,
Why disappearance is both
Universal and never

Known—nothing can go away
Leaving behind a story
Other than hunger alone.