What Is Baby Drinking?
By Jenny Moxham
An Animal Rights Poem from All-Creatures.org

What Is Baby Drinking?
By Jenny Moxham

'What is baby drinking?'
(He'd been watching for a while).
'He's drinking Mother's milk, she answered
Sweetly with a smile.

'What is milk?' the child inquired,
'I'd really like to know.'
'Why milk's a special baby food
That makes a baby grow.

She poured milk from a carton
And sipped her cup of tea.
The carton showed a picture of
A cow beneath a tree.

His little brow was furrowed
As he watched his baby brother,
Then all at once he gave a cry
'That cow must be your mother!'

'Oh, you're a funny little man
To think a cow's my mother!
Whatever gave you such a thought
From watching baby brother.

'I saw you drink her baby milk
So where then is her baby?
And why do you drink baby milk
When you're a full grown lady'.

'The farmer killed her baby calf
And took it's milk', said she.
'So I could have some baby milk
To put into my tea.'

And as she spoke those words to him
She realized what she'd said,
And thought about the mother cow
Her little babe now dead.

She felt the anguish of the cow
Her baby snatched away.
She felt the fear of the calf
Upon that fateful day.

And looking down at her sweet babe
Secure in her embrace,
She knew the cow no more would gaze
In her sweet baby's face.

So then and there she made a vow
To never more partake,
In killing calves and taking milk
That isn't ours to take.

Her little child had made her see
As clearly as could be,
That cow's milk is for baby calves
And not for you and me.

March 20, 2004