I wanted to express to you
Something about to me
But I didn’t want to come across
As offensive or preachy

So what better way
To communicate meaning
Than to write you a verse
Of the tale I am telling?

Aged 8 years old
I saw a lamb in a field,
And asked mum why it was called
The same thing as a meal.

She spluttered, and uttered
Wittered, and muttered
No answer came;
From dad, the same.

Years later, on holiday
A pungent smell
Of the bone factory –
An animals’ hell.

Again I asked
And again was denied
‘Look at that fairground!
Look at that ride!’

Then 14 I was
When with some elation
I found a leaflet on
‘Animal Liberation’,
All about how
These things that we eat
Are real living beings
Cunningly labelled ‘meat’.

The connection was made;
The tofu-shopping began;
Then tempeh, lentils, quinoa,
Instead of mince, fish and ham.

I made an ethical choice,
But was still on the dairy
Until another leaflet told me
About the Milk Fairy:

‘Those cows that you don’t eat
Are still treated as meat;
They still suffer on their feet
So that you can drink
And not think
That the milk you consume
Is only produced
When the cow has a calf:
Another female milk woman.

(The male is of no use;
it gets turned into veal,
for a slightly different meal.)

So I cut out the dairy
And learned some new words
To communicate the depths
Of what I had learned.

Aged 17 and yet
To my surprise
People already knew;
They just closed their eyes.

So I stopped spreading awareness
To avoid sounding preachy
I avoided the factories
As I’d rather not see,

Paul McCartney said
‘If slaughterhouses had glass walls
We would not eat meat’:
Would not eat it at all.

And now they are saying
That the industry is killing
Not just those animals
But our own species.

For trees in the Amazon
Are being cut to grow soya
90 per cent of which
Is for animal fodder;

Imagine how many people
That fodder could feed,
If we replaced convention
With what we really need

For example, the grain quinoa:
A complete protein,
With all the amino acids
That the human body needs.

It’s in all our veg,
Cereals, nuts, beans;
There are omegas in seeds
With no risk of mercury.

I hope you will ingest;
Digest these few words,
For we’re running out of land
Because it’s used to house herds
And the herds need more land
So that they can be fed
When in fact we
Could be eating their crops instead

And there’d be no need to clear rainforest;
No need for GM,
No need for the murder
That separates ‘us’ from ‘them’

In Korea they eat dog meat
Our people wonder how
But in India they look at us and ask-
How can they eat cow?

Some reply ‘then why eat plants?
Surely they are alive too?’
But a plant will not fight for it’s freedom
Like an elephant in a zoo,
And a plant will not shed a tear
If you take away its spawn;
A plant does not play or sneeze,
Or cuddle, bark or yawn.

Now I’ve covered enough
Of what I wanted to say,
I hope that this rhyme
Has brightened your day

I cannot do much
To stop the fighting in Bangkok
Stop glaciers melting
Or turn back the clock
And stop Hitler’s insanity
Or change history’s errors
But I can change my diet:
A small step for the better.

Please forgive me the message
In this rhyming instance;
But when I sleep at night,

It’s with a (finally) rested conscience.