Let's Not Forget
Unknown Author
One fleeting glimpse of any factory farm
The cows, their fate sealed at the slaughter house,
The chickens, five crammed tightly to a cage
The male chicks not appealing to our taste,
To better understand a dairy cow
She is no mere automaton, I say.
The child, a girl will share her mother's fate
A pig's life is the cruellest life around.
Since they've no space, insanity prevails.
The more we hide from these injustices
These are no more automatons, I say.
Here is a cause that rests on naught but us
Those of religion, here's a truth today.
Your "meat" comes from a creature who has met
A hideous and most untimely death
Nor is it seemly when upon your dish
Lie corpses of a murdered bird or fish.
Would make the vilest soul cry in alarm.
The chickens, cows and pigs - their lives obscene
Degraded to meat, milk and egg machines.
Can hear their friends in front of them cry out.
If we pretend that of this they know not,
We grossly underestimate their lot.
Oft peck their mates in frightened fits of rage.
The light which blinds these creatures night and day
Adds sin and cruelty to each egg they lay.
Are tossed alive in bags to our great haste.
This writhing heap of bodies is no lie.
Eventually, they suffocate and die.
Try picturing this horrid scene somehow:
You're pumped with drugs, you're pregnant and you hurt.
And then your child is robbed from you at birth.
She mourns the loss of her child several days.
The farmers steal your milk from you and then
For profit's sake, they knock you up again.
If he's a boy, he's off to the veal crate -
A squalid, filthy stall not two feet wide.
He ne'er sees light and cannot turn inside.
The female lies immobile on the ground.
The males can sexually enter her at will.
Her infants suck her nipples through a grill.
And normally, they'd bite each others tails.
For farmers, this would cause a profit drain.
So tails are yanked at birth with squeals of pain.
The less we find we know what justice is.
We spare our cats and dogs from such "misuse",
So why allow the other cruel abuse?
They're feeling creatures tortured night and day.
By people who in numbness feel no more,
For use by us who in our haste, ignore!
And though at first we kick and scream and fuss,
We find in time a wholeness that will last
Despite the horrors of our actions past.
In front of you. It will not go away.
This is your trial; if you should shut it out.
Then, say, what is religion all about?
Other Poems
What's in a Name?
Isn't Man An Amazing Animal
Tell Me What It's Like
Do It Anyway
On Deaf Ears
A Prayer For Animals
Recognize Me
Let's Not Forget...
Point of View
God, Are You Real?
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