Children Scurry

They hump the dry rice paddies
along Lake Victoria
brown bellies
like clay bowls
set on a flat piece of driftwood.

Some have a vacant space
where a limb used to reside
others
patches of stretched skin
where an eye dwelled.

They laugh dry laughs,
hardened lips spew sand and rocks
the others scourge over.

An empty can
with scraps of metal
forms a pot
to cook some rice
and a paste of fish head.

The first few children
tentativley reach
for a single handful, small fingers like roots
digging deep in hot dirt
stomachs speaking louder then manners
a primal voice
a mischief of rats
a piled mass
a hand, a foot, a tail,
the watchful eyes rotate
almost three sixty
before
scurrying away.

Empty enclosed spots
hold children like
the hand pressed close to their mouth
darkened shoulders flung forward to protect
their spoils
from other wandering paws.