Poems of compassion dedicated to the non-human animals who share this planet
with us and the people who fight for them.
We feed ourselves to full
of what we don’t know
in the blood we touch,
the molecules we breathe
after the hunt or kill
to become market animal,
marketable, marketing
go to market
for the SARS,
the SIV meat of chimpanzees,
the hump of camel,
sitting with parasites,
mad cow disease for MERS,
for the swine flu, bird flu,
for Covid, the viruses,
Ebola "battiness"—
this is how we move,
how we roll
to home for shelter,
this is not working
is not this implosion to explode
emotions from sacrifice
the animals without a voice
but disease to kill, the cost
to spread, infecting human race
who snuff at will, their slaughters
receiving germs to manifest
rage, reminders, bulging veins.
©Lynne Goldsmith, 2020
Image from Animal Justice Canada
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