Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. This week’s poet is Christopher D. Sims.
Sims calls himself a Rockford legend. He’s an activist and organizer who is a part of the city's poetry spoken word, and literary scenes. Sims presents labor-involved theory and practices at conferences across the United States. Political for motivational reasons, his poems grasp everyday human life and creativity, sparking conversations. Trained by Obama for America in 2008 in New York City for the role of Deputy Field Organizer, he uses social media and offline platforms to engage thinkers, share truths, and inform his followers and fans using history, his personal travels, and ancestral connections. Sims was recently published in the new manuscript “The Rockford Anthology.”
Here's his poem “The Fall of Food Stamps.”
Northern Illinois, the federal government’s
gutting of food stamp benefits, boosts poverty
and hunger. Hunger and no hope for people
who have been hoping for more for some time
now.
We live in perpetual need, while aristocrats
grant more greed to their cronies.
Empty refrigerators and freezers.
Of this president, this leader, who
can be a supporter or believer?
What about the children?
Who really wants them to starve?
What about the baby’s parents
Who does not have access to credit cards?
In this government, we should not believe.
Will they re-implement free food lines
and government cheese?
It is the fall of food stamps,
the peril of the people, the
destruction of democracy,
the proof of evil, the taste
of nothing on a family’s tongue,
the fall of a society when real
political policies and work
does not get done, it’s the
rise of a revolution, but only
for some, particularly those
whose lives is based on
monetary sums.
To go to bed hungrier, that’s
what comes
© Christopher D. Sims
06/04/2025 .
