The Long View

the long view We, humans, live to kill; we murder something every day Take breakfast. we eat birds’ embryos by the millions And eat the milk the calf should have for a healthy life And the mother ends up in a hamburger Potatoes scream in pain when peeled and cooked in fat Carrots pulled up by its root are in agony The same goes for sweet tomatoes that bleed white blood When cut in half for your salad. We poison insects over farmland, a fog of poisonous gasses To make tired soil produce more. Even the beloved pet, the dog, is not spared; we shower them with misplaced love, doing, make them cling and behave unnaturally. We ignore the obvious, all life is capable of pain; what are For us to do is to eat ourselves cooked or fried.