Joyful Vegan

Vegan, a what? Cult? A kinda Fruit? Is that in the Middle East? (heard it all) No meat, no animal milk or eggs!?! A freak, a hippy, an anarchist, A radical extremist, must be sickly, a danger to American meat and dairy and values Man build the world on Meat and butter girl! Some world. But then they say you are what you eat, is that why our world is filled with hate and domination? “God made the animals for us, for us to use and rule.” Then why does it hurt to stick them, hurt to kill them? Why do we fight knowledge of their pain, if it’s natural? Is that why we hide them out of sight, to be out of mind? “I don’t want to know what happens to factory animals, I don’t want to know” and we make rock hearts covered in fat I wonder is that how it started? Long, Long ago when we first walked down that terrible slippery slope, to “progress and revolution”, to blood and pain and death Human must dominate Nature Then Man must dominate Woman My color is better then yours My god is greater, my nation stronger Yes it is I!! Behold my wicked veggie loving Evil, in all its 5’’2 glory Look at me multi-billion dollar Meat and dairy and ranch industries, I am change, small and shy, sure and strong And I will not stand callous mistreatment of my fellow animals I will stand for animals, who’s bodies, babies, And lives we use and abuse, without thought I will create new traditions inspired by love and joy Halloween Pumpkin cookies Corn bread and Lentil loaf at Thanksgiving I will live my truth and be my change, I will choose to live compassion and care I will not pretend my burger wasn’t bought with another’s blood and sufferings Or that my goat’s milk was stolen from a babies mouth I will not close my eyes to babies ripped from their mothers so humans can steal her sweet milk, I will welcome others to this bright path Come with questions and concerns Vegan, the worst dinner quest, Silly non-conformist, But cheese! But Protein and Calcium and B12 and Mom’s Irish Beef and your Grandmothers Pork Chops!!! I say what of Hens dying in cages and Calves and kids taken from their mothers and the Earth bleeding beneath our feet and Oceans raided and emptied a generation of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, all kept alive but not living? Come and dine with me, vegetables, fruits and spices, nuts and legumes, I am living, I dine on life Why feast of death and cruelty, why devour illness and destruction? What if there were 70 million tones of grain Going into children not cows? What if wild wonders were not shot To keep cash cows alive? What if $$ was not spent of greasy, fried, plastic wrapped death? What if forest were not burnt and laid low So pigs, and goats and cow could grow? No one need die for me, my health or pleasures No forests will burn to feed my needs No children starve to fatten my plate I feast on light and air and water My body nourished by compassion and choice