A Poem by Carolina Dominguez

Please listen to the grumbling within our depths,

Listen to the indistinguishable sound boldly beating in us and in neighbors alike;

The hungers of our hearts all growl for the same nourishment,

We all crave the same strength to walk the roads beneath us.

Oh! We cannot wait for crumbles to fall hours after the feast.

Please listen for hungry hearts yearning for a fair share,

Listen for women stained with plantain-weathered hands, who crave to light fires everywhere, But whose stove is their limit,

Listen for children thirsting for education, but who walk in an unceasing drought.

Please listen for men and women everywhere who silence their mortal cravings,

Who walk with their word as their only weapon; yet, not silencing their immortal hunger, knowing silence is master to the injustices.

Please listen for men and women everywhere who scream to be free:

Who scream “SUMTIN WRONG” at what they see behind iron bars at the shop; Who scream “THAT’S WRONG!” when the news screams loudly of inhumane realities,

Screaming with fear that this oppression lives deep within thee, as if the suffering is etched in their skin.

Please listen for men and women everywhere who live la lucha, the struggle for survival,

Who crave to dance, to become part of the music that is the only release; who crave to sing, to give voice to the struggle- the reality hidden inside ramshackle homes,

Listen to the men and women everywhere who belong to something outside these homes; to men and women everywhere who belong to something greater than themselves.

Please listen, listen to our hungry hearts; listen quietly enough to hear our one growling human hunger,

Listen to your cries in the ones who cry; Listen loud enough to hear your voice in the shout with the one who shouts.

Listen gently enough to hear that we are the men and women everywhere who belong to something greater than ourselves.

Listen to what lies beyond the growling, for we are greater than the growl.

--Carolina is with the Jesuit Volunteers in Belize City.