³ Cruelty marks our young women.
    Even jackals nourish their young,
But like the stupid ostrich in the desert,
    my people don’t care a whit for their own.

⁴ Desperate infants thirst for milk,
    their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.
Hungry children beg for food,
    and no one responds.

⁵ Even those raised with a silver spoon,
    swaddled in the richest fabrics,
Are starving, perishing in the streets.
    They swarm through rubbish like flies.