The man sitting in a field quietly gazing into nature 

hook baited

                                hook piercing

Apart from the three hundred thousand

edible plants in the world…

Humane

What a strange adjective

to describe slaughter

We say that we care -

well, some of us do -

but most of us just

look away while we chew

No matter how long my eyes stare at the words that form the entry inside Merriam-Webster,

I fail to see the inclusion of wishing someone dead

A turkey is pardoned, 

though he committed no crime

The sigh of relief when the credits roll

and we can rest assured that no animals

were harmed in the making of this movie

Plants feel pain,
as we all know
I won’t trim my hedges,
I cry when I mow

Fishing is only

peaceful if you aren’t the one

swallowing the hook

Rows of bodies,

chopped or ground,

endlessly piled

and conveniently priced

for your selection

Hypocrisy

is saying you care about them

while simultaneously

paying for their death

Which ones do you cage

and make jump through fiery hoops?

Which ones do you cram inside

tiny metal coops?

A spectacle of joy

for the girls and the boys

Flinging chickens

at the County Fair

With happy castration,

how we frolic away

while elastic bands squeeze our nuts

waiting for eventual decay

It takes nerve to call

us overpopulated

when you have billions

Be polite, they tell us,

don’t shout with the truth 

as we steal the future

breath by breath from the youth

“But bacon!” was the mic drop

The end of having to feel,

the instant end to imagining

the suffering in a meal

Everyone always uses “rabbit food” when comparing

a vegan diet to that of another animal,

as if that were the only herbivore known to man

You don’t have to join any group, sign up for any newsletter, or even socialize with vegans. We’re just asking that you choose some rice and beans and cashews and clementines and save some animals, and maybe still save the planet too.