A 1) Daily Bread

DAILY BREAD

Fresh bread for sale!
Fresh bread for sale!
Elder of Yalta, Black Sea, Ukraine,
Dry crusted living reveals her pain.
Pointed finger of passerby,
Make judgments on her worth,
What work she does,
What income she earns.
Pointed finger of passerby,
Do you see intrinsic worth?
Her carefully, cradled, creations for sale?
Value she brings to the world,
By her birth?

Fresh bread for sale!
Fresh bread for sale!
Elder of Vancouver, Canada,
Wear same despairing mask,
Pointed finger of passerby,
Disbelieves food scarcity,
Economists throw away their bones,
Before they have expired.
Pointed finger of passerby,
Are your eyes closed,
To inflations stranglehold on income?
High costs for basic needs?
Poor governmental planning?

Fresh bread for sale!
Fresh bread for sale!
- Kathleen Katon Tonnesen, 2019.

"On my travels in 1994 to Yalta, on the shores of the Black Sea in the Ukraine, I observed this elderly lady selling her fresh baked breads on the street. Coming from South Africa, I had never seen a Caucasian woman of such elder years, having to earn her daily bread in such a manner. I felt sad as I witnessed the harshness of her life imprinted on her facial expression. The pointed finger of the passerby inquiring of her carefully cradled creations for sale, made me think of the judgments people make about each other; by defining the worth of a person by the work that they do, and the incomes they earn, instead of by the intrinsic worth and value the person brings to the world, simply by being born.

Food scarcity is a reality for many elderly seniors in 2019, in Vancouver, BC., Canada, due to inflation costs for basic food necessities, and over priced housing and rentals, as a direct result of poor economic governmental planning. Today, I have become witness to many elderly seniors succumbing to wearing this same despairing facial expression of my lady of 'Daily Bread'. My question is: Why do economists throw away the elderly before they have expired?" - Kathleen Katon Tonnesen, 2019.

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