Please Don’t Turn Away
By Beth Levine
An Animal Rights Poem from All-Creatures.org

Please Don’t Turn Away
By Beth Levine

I am watching a movie about a man
Who finds out he’s going to die
And after he tells his wife
He cries out

I don’t want to die
I don’t want to die
I don’t want to die

His knees give way
And the man slides to the floor
Back supported by the bed

I don’t want to die
I don’t want to die
I don’t want to die

Tears drip from his chin
And he rocks from
Side to side

I don’t want to die
I don’t want to die
I don’t want to die

The gut-wrenching
Anguish and fear and despair
Of the unchangeable
Inescapable
End
Fill this moment

I don’t want to die
I don’t want to die
I don’t want to die

I know this feeling
I know this feeling when I see the pig scrambling
And hear him squealing
Trying to get away from the mechanical arm
That brings him to his slaughter
I know this feeling when I see the cow about to be bolted
Her eyes frantic
Trying to climb over the slick walls
That tower over all four sides of her
And hear her loud breaths filled with fear
I know this feeling when I see chicken salad, fish sticks, cow’s milk, a turkey sandwich
Hamburgers, cheese, bacon, eggs

I don’t want to die
I don’t want to die
I don’t want to die

Their cries slice through my heart
Filling me with desperation
To make the violence
The pain, the blood, the terror
The needless death
Stop

I can’t do it without you

Please

Don’t turn away from your compassion
Will you let yourself hear their cries?