Poetry & Prose

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Epitaph For A Friendship
Laura Moretti, essay
Mouser died today. It had been 13 years since the black-and-white kitten had come into my life (we called her Mouser to make Dad happy about the mice in the barn). And I think she wanted to live up to her name as well; she was an aggressive mousing cat — except... well... except she didn't seem to know a mouse from a dog...

Reason for Surrender
Steve Grunow, Humane Society of Santa Clara, commentary — 1990
"Doesn't get along with other cat at home," "She plays too roughly with my older dog," "can't keep," "chews," "moving"...

Tender Moments
Charlotte Edwards, essay
My friend was on her feet now, with one unbelieving hand against her mouth. As the swans surrounded the frozen goose, she feared what life he still had might be pecked out by those great swan bills...

Bear Dreaming
Susanne Hare, essay
Many indigenous peoples across the continent revere the bear as the guardian, protector, keeper, and spirit helper of the North American continent...

Lines To Be Said After Soup
Henry Bailey Stevens, poem
With lentils, tomatoes and rice / Olives and nuts and bread / Why do I have to gnaw on a slice / Of something bloody and dead?...

A Childhood Memory
Paulette Callen, essay
The place was thick with a reeking steam that rose out of a cauldron gurgling and frothing with oily brown bubbles. The smell. Feces. Urine. I was sorting out the smells — rather, my brain was sorting them by itself...

Think of Me
Wayne Tolson, poem
Think of me tonight / For that which you savor...

Mad Human Disease
Natasha Canali Wood, poem
How is it / That we can make an animal into a machine / And feel no remorse?...

Poem
Stan Kelley, poem
Sit down to a table set with plate of meat / A dead carcass you venture to eat / traumatized flesh tortured and beat...

The Bull Calf
Henry Bailey Stevens, poem
Well, Sonny! Come along, / Swinging your little tail! / This is the price you have to pay / For being born a male...

If You Held the Knife
Susan Rich, poem
The lamb to the slaughter / So innocent and white / Will end up as somebody's dinner tonight / As lamb "chops" or "stew" / With mint jelly, "au jus"...

Second Thoughts
Betty Jahn, poem
Alone, / In God's quiet / On a far hill / Where wild woods meet pasture / I meet a group of cows...

All Flesh
Heather D. Yakin, poem
Alone, / In God's quiet / On a far hill / Where wild woods meet pasture / I meet a group of cows...

The Voice for Animals
Gary Yourofsky, poem
The videos I've seen / Heinous and malicious / Images of carnage / Evil and wicked / Abattoirs of horror...

Seal Song
Ray Bradbury, essay
I would hate to be the captain of a space expedition landing on a strange world confronted by strange creatures. I would hate to be the governor of a state making decisions about similar creatures in my own environment...

A Song for Regan the Bloody
Anonymous, poem — April 2005
There once was a sealer named Bryce / Whose heart was as frigid as ice. / He clubbed 'em and snagged 'em / Then brutally dragged 'em; / Of mercy he didn't think twice....

Poem for Baby Seals
Lindy Greene, poem — April 2005
A fleet of heartless, mindless buffoons / Sets out for the annual killing fields / To commit genocide under Arctic moons / Fulfilling "quotas," harvesting "yields"...

Obligation
Edgar A. Guest, poem
They cannot ask for kindness / Or for mercy plead, / Yet cruel is our blindness / Which does not see their need...

Whalesong
Stephen Siciliano, poem
But it isn't the same at all / fails to conjure up those colors / for compared to the whale /
even the lion's heart pales / becomes a very small thing...

For a Coming Extinction
W.S. Merwin, poem
When you will not see again / The whale calves trying the light / Consider what you will find in the black garden—And its court...

A Whale of a Conversation
Laura Moretti, essay
I spoke with an acquaintance recently who confessed that she had gone to Sea World in San Diego. She said she felt sad when she remembered some of the things I had told her about wild animals in captivity but she wanted to know where else people would learn about killer whales...

The Sending of the Animals
Henry Salt, poem
The animals, you say, were "sent." / For man's free use and nutriment"...

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