Images of their lives short & wretched
then slaughter’s horror for animals
indelible impressions sizzle etched
From where springs our human animus?
Aren’t we bereft of compassion
raising them as mere food ration?
Clearly meat eating replete
with daily cruelty?
Mustn’t chewing ‘factory meat’
place hearts in truancy?
Which goes for swilling dairy
if on human behalf
should we not all be wary
unless a nursing calf?
“But we like meat & dairy!” Good grief!
Won’t you grasp animals aren’t our beef?
Instead thrive on flowing wheat
lustrous, delectable
and the fresh & brimming sweet
fruit & vegetable!
Twisted like acrobatic acts
to engineer outcomes perverted
opinions offered up as facts
then glibly, haughtily asserted
On recklessness binged
in forward pose
pours on claims unhinged
anything goes!
These days seem veracity
as well as morality
eclipsed by mendacity
in foam bath banality
In times erstwhile weren’t we restrained
by facts as being impregnable?
Perhaps too old to be retrained
for when few norms are detectable
Now floating away dazzled
from Reality’s shores
we’re too creaky & frazzled
to keep pulling the oars
Thus on waves of distraction we’re drifting
when did we last do something uplifting?
+)
facts = “Factual evidence, since it is an impediment to what we desire, is banished” – Chris Hedges
edited 08/15/24 1730