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REACHABLE STAR
OR CHANGE THE WORLD IN FIVE HOURS

Henry went to hospital
Twas Bethesda Naval
and took a picture of an ape
in a restraining chair.
And took it to an international
picture wire
called Black Star
which sent it round the world..
and Gandhi saw and knew
that violated was the treaty
.. and she cancelled monkey export
.. because Henry in 5 hours
.. cared to reach for
.. one bright and reachable... star!

(Henry Spira throughout his life
taught others where to place the
Archimedes lever with which to
move the world)

CITIZEN'S ARREST

"A citizen may make an arrest
if she witnesses a felony
being committed", said Rockford.
"Quick!! Hurry!! Arrest him! "
He's swallowing
the evidence of his murder..
.. said Momma Cow
and Poppa Sow
as their piglets and
calves
were swallowed
by the farmer.    

ROUTE 80

The freezing winter winds rip
through down from mountain
passes through the open slats of
the slaughterhouse trucks
on Route 80..
.. the sick are on the truck
floor, called downers.
The frightened low
and low.

In the summer time, their
tongues hang out from thirst
.. some of them suffocating
in the fetid air.

BLESS THE BEASTS

In Canada they clubbed the seals.
In Ireland they killed the eels.
Bull fights they waged in Madrid Spain..
a most brutal public kind of pain..
In Galapagos upended tortoise.
In Japan they knifed the porpoise.
In Denmark they slaughtered sows.
In Argentina they killed cows.
In Mexico they beat up donkeys.
In Zaire they caged up monkeys.
In Utah trapped mated raccoons.
In Congo caged baby baboons.
Norway  Iceland Japan and US Inuit
hunted the last remaining whales.
In Ohio they crushed chick males
and caged millions of bird females.
In Virginia they hunted fox
At church gatherings they roasted ox.
In Maine boiled lobsters alive.
They advertised flesh on Channel 5.
Maryland taxes suffocated crabs.
Boston queen of cruel labs
In Korea they ate the dogs..
while in France they de-legged frogs
and Manitoba murdered hogs
Littleton Colorado poisoned
prairie dogs.
In Germany they choked
the geese.
In New Zealand
froze sheep unfleeced.
In China for spare parts they farmed bears.
In New Jersey for pleasure they killed bears.
In Saskatchewan they made Mad Elk & Deer
by feeding to the living the parts of dead deer
S Africans slaughtered elephants for their tusks
Idaho killed musk oxen for their musk.
Near the feedlots of Amarillo
They tried to hit the armadillo.
In Wisconsin they separate cow mothers
from their daughters, from their brothers.
In College Park for Frank Perdue
UM taught skinning rabbits.
In Chile from stolen skin
they made their riding habits.
Israeli jets bombed cows in boats
Ukrainians made animals into coats.
In Egypt they ate
old faithful slave camels.
In Mecca they slaughtered
countless millions of mammals.
In Florida boats defin manatee.
In W. Virginia groundhogs
poisoned on the golfing tee.
50,000 mice and dogs
drowned at U of T.
In Vietnam cut off eyes of shrimp
At UK's Oxford they shocked the chimp.
In Australia clubbed 6 million kangaroo..
Hippo choked on tennis ball
at the Detroit Zoo.
At the stampede in Calgary
they create for calves a Calvary.
Kentucky horses die in barn fires.
and break their legs in the mire.
Water skiers marauded nests of powerless
floating loons.
Careless walkers smashed the nests
of terns in grassbraid dunes.
Chanel for civet harmed the cat
but who is tortured more than rat?
Ermine tongues to greased
traps in Siberia froze.
In Italy calves made veal..
.. especially loved.. flesh of rose.
Oregon cuts 1000 year old trees
while smashing their squirrels birds and bees.
Many hate the gentle cockroach
and upon her life span they encroach

Said one 'I think they're coming
to feed us! '
'No by God! they're coming to eat us! '

Everywhere they're dismembered subdivided
drawn and quartered crucified.
This hell will end... heart by heart..
as each soul wills to do its part.

-

This poem is dedicated to Alex Hershaft who
founded and continues tirelessly to work
on the Meatout and WFAD.

Thank You God  Allah Divine Mother Shiva Great Spirit
Higher Power,  by whatever name You are called, for ending today and forever
all violence to any being.

Tony Blair kept his election promise to end
fox hunts in England of more than 2 dogs.
But these hunts continue in Virginia.

S Africa  and Norway also club seals
secretly Canadian
fishermen are involved in whale killing
WorldAnimalNet lists thousands of groups
working together around the world.

Many of these campaigns to stop Canadian seal clubbing, Japanese
and Norwegian whaling, Spanish bullfights, vivisection and animal
slaughter in the US and around the world, are ongoing.

Japanese businessmen buy ivory from the illegal African
elephant slaughter.

BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS

We have nothing to offer
you.. say the cows of
their gravy.. but our
blood, sweat, and tears.

How is it that their
tears..
are crystalline and clear
when they are made of
crimson blood and torn
from their broken hearts?

How is it that such tiny
orbs.. can contain
a globe of suffering?

(Sweat from uric acid or trioxypurine,
the pre-urine in animals' muscle cells
which is stronger than caffein or dioxypurine...)

AUDUBON THE BIRD STUFFER

Audubon killed birds to recreat them
stilled birds ere he would paint them
birds he debilled
birds he dequilled
birds with stuffing filled
.. no longer they trilled

but some open the cages and let
birds fly
open the ovens to stop their cries
turn off the heat and stop the fry
take 24 blackbirds from Colonel's pie

the Strasbourg geese from forced food
untied

(to Karen Davis, H Spira and all
bird protectors)

CHANEL NO. 41

Chanel.. this perfume
numbered five
.. since so many
animals.. lost their
lives?

Ambergris from the
sperm whale
Castor from the Canadian
beaver
Civet from the civet
  cat rotated in a drum
  to make her afraid and
  secrete
and 36 musk oxen
castrated.. for 1 ounce
of musk
.. should it have been
called Chanel No. 41

(Thank you to Andrew Linzey
for including this poem
in his anthology)

PUPPY OF ANGEL BEAR

Little puppy of Angel Bear
chasing a butterfly brightwinged
His hat: floating dandelion fluff
spilling away as he canters
through the green rough
.. Little bear puppy
head cocked to concentrate
on the silent music he hears.

NONZOOPHAGOUS

Mohammed was monogamous
Gandhi was nonzoophagous
Maybe a rhinoceros
and a hippopotamus
are polygamous
Maybe a lion
and a tiger
are carnivorous
but human beings
are designed
to be frugivorous
and monogamous.

WHITE FIRE

Many times the hunter's
gun had suddenly
with its white fire
aborted the lives
of squirrels and groundhogs,
deer and bears.

The path out.. from
the gun .. was the return
path taken by
the forked electricity.

When news came that
he had died of lightning
some thought it
was his metal rifle:
a lightning rod

Others thought the
lightning
a Divine white fire:
the moving
finger of God

ST ANTHONY PREACHED TO THE FISHES

St. Anthony found
when humans didn't listen
that by the seashore
fishes ever listened
They did not need him
them to christen
since they're immersed
in lovewaters' baptism..
and swim in joy..
neath lighted seas' glisten

http://www.nofishing.net

METHODS OF MOUSEKILLING IN THE WORLD'S LABS

Some suffocate them in plastic bags.
Other use little mouse sized
guillotines, advertised in
vivisection supply magazines.
Still others break their necks.
The sadistic feed them to snakes.
Those in denial delegate the task.
Some mice are needled to death.
Some are given poison.
Some die with their tiny fingers
caught in mouse traps.
Some die in agony after having
cancer or caustic chemicals
introduced into their bodies
.. or in forced sleeplessness
or forced swimming experiments
.. or having had their limbs
cut off.
All the little ones.. go straight to GOD

TOM TURKEY

2 years ago the moving
finger of God manifested
as a tornado..
and ripped the roofs
off the factory farms
in Croton Ohio.. revealing
to the world the misery
of the birds..
6 to a cage.. some still
alive after 9 days without
food and water..
debeaked so they would not
peck each other to death
from the overcrowding

This month the Finger
went through Van Wert
settling its force
near Cooper's Turkey
Farm

In the November holiday
of Thanksgiving
.. she promised
to give the turkeys
something for which to
be grateful..

no longer to eat their
flesh..
no longer to wish on
their bones..
when their wishes
could not be fulfilled.

PANDEVA'S MENAGERIE

They can't read
save the sounds
of his soul
They can't write
except on his heart

WINTER HERON NESTS

In the high barren
winter trees..
along the river's bank
.. they wait..
empty heron's nests
.. soon will come
the Flock of Spirit
to make of the
waiting hearts
a home

PURLOINED

Every pork loin
is from an innocent
victim
purloined
Every pork chop
from a little piggie chopped

ELEPHANTS

Elephants are the symbol
of the GOP
... of those
big game hunters
who kill oxen for musk
of those Safari Club
men
who shoot and saw off
the tusk
.. as easily as
if removing
ears of corns husks..

http://www.matthewscully.com
(Matthew Scully Bush speechwriter
doesn't seem to worry about the
animals bombed by B 52's,
or shot at Sharon checkpoints
.. )

ASK NOT

Ask not what's for dinner
but whom

Father Mother God, we do not know
the name You gave this animal lying
dead before us.. or where she played
.. or whom she loved.. or what
were her favorite times..
or how she was gotten on the truck..
bound for slaughter.. by rope..
by kicks  by shocking rod
.. We only ask for Your infinite
blessings for her.. that You erase
from her memory the cruelty she has
received at the hand of human-kind
..as You now erase every slaughterhouse
and fishing net and pharmaceutical or other
animal lab and trap from the earth

ISCARIOT

The frightened calf Harriet
saw the cowboy as Iscariot
mounted on slavehorse chariot
twirling his noose lariat.

KATZ

Not until every mouse
monkey and pig
is safely away
do these Katz ever play

(to Elliot, Marvin, and other
Katz heroes)

HUMAN CHAUVINISM

Whether socialists or capitalists,
oligarchs or communists,
petroplutocrats or anarchists,
duopolists or monarchists

ignorant cruelty is in the wake
of human chauvinists  
ignorant cruelty  

HIPPO BITS

Vivisector MD's
discard oath Hippocratic
.. speech and act
do not match
... are they hypocrites?
Veterinarians
cutting up dogs and
cats and other living beings
.. dissecting hippo bits
Are they hypocrites?

FRANK PERDUE

Frank Perdue has
gone on now..
billions of bird bodies
after...
The pain he felt
when he was 6
and his father murdered
his pet chick

FOUR RIVERS

Four rivers in the
slaughterhouse
... the
waste they defecate
in terror
... the liquid they
urinate in panic
... the soundless
tears..
.. the blood cascading
from their knifed necks

THOUGH SINS ARE AS SCARLET
THEY SHALL BE WHITE AS SNOW

That the white wool
not be crimson with blood
that the thick furry coat
not be scarlet
they did shear the captive

sheep
before shoving in the shiv
... and sometimes after
removed the fleece
the lambs and sheep
in cold did freeze

http://www.savethesheep.com

SPONGE SONG

In the sea,
a zillion strong
singing his own song,
each sweet sponge

LITANY OF DESPAIR

The answering service
said the dog was dropped
and abandoned
on Howe Road.. and had
waited 48 hours by the telphone
pole for his human to pick him
up.

The pound worker said one
old dog whose owner had died
was taken to the pound. Housebroken,
she died of a burst bladder
rather than urinate in the cage.

(God who dwells beyond time
and can intervene in past
present or future..
bless these and all beings)

CLEVELAND AMORY

Each fall Amory, Cleveland
told the deer to leave land
Amo.. for I love you
ry... for his genius wit

ALEX PACHECO COFOUNDER OF PETA

They used to say that
Ingrid would take time out to
eat dinner..
but Alex could think of
nothing but working
for the animals.

DO NOT DISTURB

God has put a 'do not disturb'
sign
over the green shelled limpets
cozily nesting
in lime waters limpid

OINKS

Oinks and grunts
turn to squeals
and screams
as the pigs
are taken to
slaughterhouses.
Please end
the shrieks
Stop eating those
with hooves, claws,
beaks.

SHALOM

a small Shalom arrayed
against sealclubbing violent might
... but like the tiny dawning sun she
shall end the cruelty of the night

(It was not the sealclubbers who were
arrested for violent murder to innocents
but Lisa Shalom.. arrested for
filming the
brutality)

EMBEZZLING BEE

Embuzzling bee
embezzling bee
are you sad that the
nectar to you
by blooms beequeathed
has been appropriated
by no longer hibernating
bears?

PIGS

A fig tree has
spare figs
but a pig.. he
has no spare ribs

HERMAN

For their fur coats men
murdered ermine
A little mouse
whose name is Herman
they called by
the most cruel name vermin

TENNYSON

God wants no benison
prayed over Tennyson,
his beloved deer
murdered into venison
Sacred are His
each and any sons.

SOUTHERN CROSS

These kangaroos and sheep and cows
born under the Southern Cross
and its starfire
.. every animal eater...
their crucifier

SEAL SEAL

God has imprinted God's seal
on the soul of every seal
As each's soul slips away
she joyfully to Him seals

(God is beyond gender..)

CATALYZE FOR THE CATTLE'S EYES

The masses
do now catalyze
a response to
agribusiness cattle lies
for we want to
look without shame
into cattle's eyes

BEHOOVES

It behooves us to
remember that
it is God who has
behooved His sacred
animals.

DRAWN AND QUARTERED

In countless nutrition
classes, the chart on
the blackboard shows
a cow or pig or sheep
.. drawn and quartered
with dotted lines..

IN THE COUNTIES NEAR FAIRFAX

In the counties near Fairfax
in fields full filled with flaming flax
in the meadows flagged with phlox
the fair unfair enfeared the fox
before they forked the flanks of flocks

BUCK N EAR

Profiteers and
buccaneers
sell poor pigs'
pieces
for a buck n ear

EVERY BEING IS SACRED

Out of each creature's eyes
in each being's body shrine
do light and love divine
for every being shine

IMMACULATE NOAH'S ARK

She keeps the cleanest ark
in the world..
how is it possible?
she never sleeps

(to Linda G)

CRECHE

It was a cow's manger, legend
says, which became the Christ
Child's crib. But the pigs know
that their trough could also
be a cradle.

SHRINEGLOW

The glow within each being shrine
is the Divine's ignited shine

NONVIOLENT FORK

Dead fishes arriving from the sea in dories
Dead birds trundled on the land in lorries
He decided by abstinence
to make his dinner plate ungory.

DAWN CUE

Dove coo
Dawn gives to Barbie cue
.. time to throw away forever
the barbecue

PIGEONS TOGETHER

The pigeons worked together
gainst those who would them defeather.
They stopped squabbling
to prevent their becoming squab.

SHARKS

Noah was saved on the ark
from the quandary of accepting sharks.
For they could swim in the
seas
and not harm those inside the barque.

DORMANCY

It is dormancy and not hypocrisy
to eat cows and object to hippophagy.

52
. audubon the bird stuffer
. behooves
. bless the beasts
. blood sweat and tears
. buck n ear
. catalyze for the cattle's eyes
. chanel number 41
. citizen's arrest
. creche
. dawn cue
. dormancy
. drawn and quartered
. embezzling bee
. every being sacred
. herman
. immaculate noah's ark
. nonviolent fork
. nonzoophagous
. pigeons together
. pigs
. puppy of angel bear
. reachable star
. route 80
. seal seal
. shalom
. shrineglow
. southern cross
. tennyson

(The Fairfax poem has been revised. Since it
was written, millions of British workers have
outlawed foxhunting with more than 2 dogs,
but this blood sport continues in Virginia.)