FOR THE ANIMALS (Poem)
Write a poem, they said,
About cruelty to animals.
There’ll be a prize, they said.
Fair enough, I thought, couldn’t be easier.
* * *
Yet, I wish it were an impossible task.
I wish that there were no images in my mind,
Rabbits being tortured, monkeys in chains,
I would that there were no pictures.
* * *
Write a poem – there are too many notions,
Too much inspiration,
Of hunting, factory farming, seal culls,
I wish there were no ideas.
* * *
Yet there is a hard part of writing the poem.
How can you find words for what happens
To the creatures who die for experiments,
For making fur coats, for medical research?
* * *
And so yes, here is my poem,
But how I wish there was nothing to write about.
First appeared under the title “The Competition”, in the book, Vegan Stories, published by the Vegan Society
Julie Rosenfield 