The Full-Fridge Privilege

I saw a video
few months back
showing people ‘round the world in solitude
in quarantine.
A ballerina twirled fast and strong on carpet
a guitarist gave a concert to his devoted tabby cat
a painter threw blue at the canvas stretched across his wall
– each alone,
each living their own struggle, but –
each unified in their lonely humanity:
what a tear-jerker! Yes, yes that’s right,
we can all make it through – apart, yet still
together.
But: each
with a fridge –

each with a full fridge.

So much more to the story:
Bones
and skin and skin
and bones

a chasm between
living

and living hungry.

Puzzled in the attempt to quantify
the boundless emptiness that fills
a stomach pressing concave toward the spine –
the contradiction crowds out any concern for unity.
Seeing the beauty in a unified humanity:
that’s a full-fridge full-belly privilege.
For this vast world to be one
both pandemics must be undone.