Vox Populi
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Sandy Solomon: Hunger
His parents were doctors, Jewish refugees,
with a German-sounding name. In Des Moines,
in a time of war, he’d leave for school each day
carrying his painted metal lunchbox. Inside,
the meal his mother packed: braunschweiger
with brown bread, often—pumpernickel,
flag of foreign origin, amid
the white bread sandwiches so many
kids consumed: peanut butter or bologna
mostly. On his walk to school, he’d stop, unobserved,
to open his lunchbox above a bin
where he’d toss that day’s wax-papered
difference, so he could sit at the long table
with friends, heads together over baseball
or games. Thus, he favored one hunger
over the other: to remark in others’ eyes
nothing special, the casual glance only,
to know he belonged there and then with them,
not his parents with their Mein lieber Sohn,
their love wrapped in what he knew as shame.
~~~~
Sandy Solomon teaches at Vanderbilt University where she is Writer in Residence in Vanderbilt’s Creative Writing Program. Her book, Pears, Lake, Sun, which received the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press, was published simultaneously in the UK by Peterloo Poets.
Solomon has published poems in The New Yorker, Plume, Scientific American, Kenyon Review, Harvard Review and The Times Literary Supplement.
Copyright 2025 Sandy Solomon
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Oh, the small terrible shame that boy felt.
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Yes, the dilemma of the second generation of immigrants. Caught between two cultures and having to choose.
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Oh! I just love how these enjambed quatrains lead Sandy and thus her readers to “Thus, he favored one hunger /
over the other…” and all that follows. Thank you, Sandy, for another splendid poem.
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A WOW! poem.
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Yes, wow.
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heartbreaking, and timely. thank you
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Yes, it is. The dark side of assimilation.
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Hunger, shame, belonging, oh the sadness of needing to reject his parents’ love to be accepted – what a poignant poem.
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Yes, it is.
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In a time of war, perhaps WW II, the classmates would have been bullying the boy for any signs in him of Germany, including his bread. Jew or not. Powerful take in this poem at how sentiments of parents filter down; with the need for kids to belong to their own generation. Good to think about how the boy solved this lunchroom dilemma.
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Fine poem: “he favored one hunger
over the other…”
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Yes, I love Sandy’s poems.
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