A Great Depression

I saw a destitute mother, her children huddling against her in fear and in hunger. All of them were dressed in tattered cloth; their hopeless faces downcast beneath coarse mops of unkempt hair. The mother’s face was lined with wrinkles in contrast to the smooth but smudged cheeks of her children. But they all carried the same expression of gloom and doubt. The mother made no effort to embrace her children. She merely stroked her chin just beneath her lips pondering, whatever those in poverty, ponder.