FAMINE
Famine sneaks from house to house,
Stealing essence
From sleeping bodies
Buried beneath heavy covers.
Creeping across snow covered fields
To feast on simple creatures
Pulsating in the cold.
Scarcity deprives abundance;
Pantries lack,
Fields want.
Hunger’s work is done.
It prowls and slinks away.
—from 2014 Rattle Young Poets Anthology
__________
Why do you like to write poetry?
Remington Janssen: “When I first started writing poetry, I thought it was ‘different.’ I didn’t really like writing at all. My teacher, Matt, at the Nueva School, taught me that poems are the skeletons of story. You connect a pile of interesting bones together in a way that makes sense and moves fluidly. Now I enjoy creating ‘stories’ that stand out. ‘Famine’ was originally an assignment to create a winter holiday card to send to our families. I decided to change things up a bit.”
