Poetry, Essays and Art By J.H. Dickinson from All-Creatures.org

 

What’s in a word?

Eyes move along the page:
Carnism: Necessary, Normal, Natural, Nice
Power over nature.
Exacting circumstance.
Disavowal from truth.

Skirting around the table
Like human dancing ghouls,
We cook,
We Disguise,
Lips red.

Stunning, Bleeding, Dismantling, Packaging,
Rendering shining eyes,
Hot breath,
Hoof, trotter, claw,
To an end.

Pages filled to bursting point:
Happy farms - not animal machine,
Meat factory – not slaughterhouse,
Meat – not limbs and fleshy parts,
Normative dinner - not ‘individuals’ on the plate,
Consumption - not suffering,
Humanely stunned - not awake,
Sticking - not cutting the throat,
Expelling – not blood pooling.

I see:
Killable - not murderable,
Harvested - not hurt,
Despatched - not slaughtered,
Processed - not dying, dead,
Moved along – not beaten.
Happy branding in hidden duplicity,
Of masquerade.
End of trust
In humanity.

I take a pen, and scribble my way free:
End of denial,
Acknowledged sentience,
Shared experience,
Compassion,
Understanding,
Wonderment,
Embodiment,
Human animal,
Kindness in the moment.
Ruffle of fur, feather, pat of flank,
Grace in shining eyes.
Peace, love, truth.

What’s in a Word?
I grip the pen,
determined.

Reference: ‘Carnism’ as coined by Melanie Joy

Art © J.H. Dickinson

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