Out of the darkness
comes an eerie cry
One that we should not
like nor it deny.
A choir of plaintive
speak of animal tongue
Calling to mind the
heinous deeds we’ve done.
In the supermarket the
lights are bright -
They give no sign of
the wretched beasts’ plight.
If you want to close
your eyes to it you can,
But listen you, their
voices call across the span.
Let your mind fly across open meadows,
Hear the plump cow as she munches and lows.
Not worries nor fear in her heart has she -
She gives of her milk and her calf willingly.
Not far yonder lives a pig in her sty,
No wish but to wallow and in sun to lie.
Her piglets trot freely at her heavy heel,
Their soft pink skin yet no suff’ring to feel.
Haste to the corner in a hungry mood
In search and in need of some savoury food.
Relief you shall find under red and white
stripes:
Cheap and in so many different types.
Time have you not, for you must run,
Attend to the dates that make up your modern
lot.
On tarmac roads your sneakers make not a sound
Head down, headphones on, unaware of anyone around.
At home you eat, a thought not spared,
For those who gave their flesh to sate your
appetite.
If perchance a worrisome thought does emerge
Their suffering you do think yourself away.
It is but the natural order of things
That mankind control and take the centre stage.
Bending the will of nature to breaking point:
Not the animals but ourselves who are enslaved,
Melting eyes with long, quivering lashes,
Ears swivel to the sound of metallic crashes.
Small lungs straining as he for his mother
calls:
A short life spent lonely ‘tween comfortless
walls.
Legs trembling with the weight of unnatural
gain,
Skin bald and painful, too long in putrid
waste has lain.
Luminous yellow eyes now dulled and blind.
How does it feel, our tasty meal now so to
find?
Relentless is this farm machine of ours,
Every beat of its heart a thousand lives
devours.
Not man nor beast can take a break,
Trapped and unhappy for industry’s sake
From the depth of our free and healthy breast
Compassion, let us not with this scene rest!
Far from the path of humanity we have strayed
And with their lives these animals have paid.
A warning sound bleats out within the shed,
The air thick with the sounds and smells of
dread.
Turkeys’ heads fixed for the executioner’s
blow
Come loose and thrashing to and ‘fro.
The fear in the still-living animals’ eyes,
The metal chute leading to their demise.
Electric shocks to their faces as they turn,
From birth beyond the point of no return.
It must be so, these lives from humans sown
To sate the population, yes, our own.
Is not their wordless pain less than our need?
We who have so many mouths to feed.
They do not know their fate ‘til late in their
day,
The sun only rising by human decree.
Livelihoods depend on the farmers’ pay:
Human and animal too many to be free.
Blood spatters across the wall,
Writing the life story of a nameless soul.
Human and beast debased beyond repair,
Neither one to escape does dare.
An insane cycle spins out of control,
Our conscience crying, calling for a change.
Children’s voices chiming with the bleats of
animals
As once we this arranged, can we now
rearrange.
In the dark shed the voices fade to black,
We cannot know how many more will die,
Not only the animals’ but our own dignity do
we attack.
The knife clatters down, please let it lie.
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