two children.
Pitiful children.
Beloved,
they would often beam
and say,
“I wish.”
Kurt Vonnegut traveled to Biafra in 1970 and was present for the last days of the Biafran War. He made the trip as part of a humanitarian effort to provide aid to the starving Biafrans. He wrote an essay called “Biafra: A People Betrayed,” upon his return to the US. Page 143 of “Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons,” a book that brings together a number of Vonnegut’s essays and speeches from the late 60’s and 70’s, is part of that essay, which I find tremendously moving. Among many things Vonnegut summarizes in his matter-of-fact way is the plight of starving children. I tried to capture the innocence of childhood in my choice of words to highlight. -Andy Smallman
