Your Honesty Is Poverty Poem by Mulunda Silingi Phelix Nasiombe

I am having a bite. A real bite that my lips and fingers are fighting over it! I can see my neighbours salivating. They have nothing to eat! Is that my problem! ? Noo! Their parents never worked hard to save enough for them! It is their parents' problem! Let me, or should I share my food! No! No! I can't. Didn't my mom teach me good table manners! You don't talk while eating! Let me enjoy.

Let me pick more pieces of meat! These chapattis are yummy! What about this fish? I like it. It is just as delicious as the one I ate yesterday. Yes, it is sweet.

This fresh juice here oozes a nice scent! I can see how my neighbours are disturbed by diffusion! Or is it osmosis? Noo, it is diffusion. I can see another diffusion! Fish and beef and mutton have strong sweet sweat. Their Sweat travels fast to their nostrils! I can see that they are now yawning! Is it my problem! Why can't they move away! If not I will unleash the sweat of fried chicken !

They know me! No. They don't. I have to teach them. Waiter? Please bring me a full plate of chicken and a glass of wine!
Look at their eyes! They are staring at me! These people, why can't they take away their hungry eyes! Maybe they are sick. Maybe they are enjoying my food by looking at it. Mom once told me, don't you know the poor can be satisfied by just the smell of our food. Yes, they do. See how they are eating with their hearts and eyes! They are eating more than me 😂. I can't laugh while eating.

Do you sell handkerchiefs? Let me have one. I want to wipe away my face! It is watery. Yes, it is watery yet I am just beginning to eat. I have to dedicate my 3hrs on eating. Eating and wining and juicing and watering.

The poor are salivating! Let them salivate. If they like, let them the cry! Who told their parents to be honest. Honesty is poverty. See, my father drives only new cars! Isn't he a senior man in government? He knows how to trade with gov. He can bring home millions meant for the sick! Is there any complaint! ? No. Another day, he says, this is supposed to cushion the poor! But the poor are happy in their poverty! Their children are never sick!
But why am I saying all these! Is it not because of those poor people sticking their eyes on my food?
I hope, they won't be stupid as their poor parents! They must learn how to be like my dad! Look at me now! Look at my body,23 years but 100kgs. Soon I will be 150kgs. The poor talk of good health! This soothes their tiny and bonny bodies! Let them wait and see if I will burst by clicking 200kgs! They are stupid.
Honestly, I don't like being honest because honesty has made many poor! But what of God! Will he condone our theft! Anyway, doesn't my father preach? My mom is loved by all women in our church! Without our family, that church could still be mud-walled! God will spare us this.

Father says, Africa is our business. Yes, Africa is out business. Look at the minerals in Congo! Look at the Congolese, woo poor and wretched but us the traders! At times, you hear gov has banned logging! It is a ban for the poor! We, the rich have to continue with timber business!

You talk of forest preservation! That too is for the poor! We, the rich, we build in the forest! Our houses are deep there! We live with the wildlife! And when the poor wants to see the animals, they pay! Even school kids pay! And come with the hired buses! Just to see their own wildlife! We, the rich don't pay, we live right there!

I am forgetting about my food. But why am I brooding loudly! ? Is it not because of those poor people there? Next time, I will buy them food and ask them to elect me! I will tell them how I loved in poverty for many years 😂😂Yes, I will. The good thing is that the poor believes in everything! They are gullible! Another boy licked my legs just after mentioning that such an act could enrich him! He promised to kiss my legs more than Mary Magdalene! Please, I will be licking your legs every day! Please die me not the opportunity! Yeah, you see, they believe in anything! They believe in anything. Those poor people, will make me their mp.