When I was a kid I imagined poverty as "not having nice things", probably my image of it was that of the family in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
They didn't have nice things but could somehow manage, somehow get by. Things were bad but stable.
Now I realise that real poverty is marked by instability. There's turnover. You can and will die.
You can't actually live off cabbage soup forever? What happens if you get injured? What happens if you get sick?
Poverty isn't a stable existence where you just have to make do without nice things, but an unstable existence, one where you can't take for granted you can keep carrying on.