Lynne GoldsmithBattery Cage in Blackout House
Animal Rights Poetry By Lynne Goldsmith From All-Creatures.org

Poems of compassion dedicated to the non-human animals who share this planet with us and the people who fight for them.

Battery Cage in Blackout House
By Lynne Goldsmith

Ten to a cell (2 by 1½ feet),
                      Hens

forced molting, reduced light,
absent water/feed, freshness to breathe

missed sun, flaming earth not to feel
cracked bones, diseases, disorders
           (rotting eggs in oviduct,
           large eggs internally stuck,
           uterine prolapse) perhaps

infections expected can’t forget
skeletal paralysis commonplace
dismissed in stepped upon

to spread no wings—7 billion male chicks—
7 billion male chicks discarded yearly—
                      not to forget
           (gassed, macerated, decapitated)

multi-billion dollar egg-unfertilized business

of hens maybe given two years
of suffocated—oh, and not to forget
expected, same means of death
(one more method remembered)

of literal suffocations—male chicks.

©Lynne Goldsmith, 2020

battery cages
Image by Christo Anestev from Pixabay

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