Poems and Essays
Ruminations of an Angry Cow
Cattle Cars
The delusionality of labeling “happy” the animals we send to slaughter
feels like proclaiming there were lots of “happy” train passengers in Germany in the first half of the 1940s
Like smoke wasn’t billowing either way
How to Kill a Lobster Without Feeling Bad About It
Dead, processed, packaged
Once swimming around
Plunging into boiling water
A painful death
What I Wanted to Say
When I ordered the veggie burger and you asked me,
“If you wanted something that tastes like meat, why don’t you just eat meat?”
The Ability to Look Away (A Prayer)
You gave them room to move about
with grasses, hills, and trees
But we stuff them tightly into sheds
to live amongst disease
When You Kill Cows, Yet Are Offended to be Perceived as a Killer
To the rancher who tagged me on his video,
Asking if his cows looked “unhappy,”
I responded,
“Show me the video of their slaughter and we’ll see”
Death by a Salesman
The auctioneer sets the minimum bid
for a life already battered,
and the eager crowd decides
when to raise a hand to up the ante
Erasing the Humane Slaughter Act
Congress finds that no method of slaughter shall be deemed humane
The World’s Greatest Magic Trick
Houdini shocked the world when he once made
a single elephant seemingly vanish into thin air
While we make eight million animals disappear
every hour
Another Boring English Lesson
A funny thing, the English Language
Like how fish as a noun means one of 32,000 species
While fish as a verb means to attempt to kill them
No Sweetness in Your Sweetbread
There is no sweetness
in your sweetbread,
kindness was not
on the menu
Minor Injuries Sustained by the Driver, We Can’t Say the Same of the Passengers
Pidge was nameless
when the day began,
the day that was to be his last
Morals on Monday
Meatless Mondays
for those of us who
don’t want animals to suffer
...every day
Dinner Plate Refugees
Happy Cows?! Humanely Raised Hens?!
Have you been hitting grandpa’s liquor again?
An Exercise in Empathy
only to have him dragged away from you almost immediately, as you cry out in protest and despair
Redundant Circles Never Leading Anywhere
I pace in desperation,
my life reduced
to redundant circles
never leading me anywhere
Be Thankful, Johnny, Just Ignore the Death
A tradition of thanks, centered on death
Oh, the contrast, the absurdity
We Both Got an F on Our Animal-Eating Test
Wait. You said I was silly
You went on and on about protein
You said God gave you animals to eat