i know this is not a new message
another stupid poem
about old hats

but we keep killing so
here it is again

to remind us all of those casual killings
which keep us alive and happy

we live off the deaths of those
we do not stop to consider

perhaps it will get us closer to the truth
to admit that we were made for deathmongering
and that to lie awake too long overthinking our steps and missteps
is to ride unicorns
into the flames around the sword protecting paradise
from the likes of us

there have been many societies
in history
who believed that what they hunted
and what they gathered
the animals they slaughtered
and the plants they cut down
shared equal consciousness
that veganism is a clumsy rationalization
when all life has a face
whether we see it or not

but they did not stop eating
from guilt
they simply understood
that one being’s survival
costs another’s life

this is not to say that we should sleep on
unnecessary pain
suffering
and war
this is not to say that we should sleep on
factory farms
the business of existence as commodity
or exploitation of others
or anything that divorces us
from the bite of the cost of living

these old hats are full of blood
but we should wear them
not proudly but humbly
because they are ours

perhaps we should say that
meat is murder indeed
and so what if it is
when the corn cries we don’t hear it
but it cries nonetheless

perhaps if we agree that abortion does cause death
but also propose that choosing it is not evil
or perhaps say that war is atrocity
but we are all atrocious

perhaps if we count the blood metals
in our cellphones and computers
and think of the dead miners
and call them unfortunate victims
when we message our likeminded friends
to join us in an online discussion about them

we can at last admit who we are
see each other as beings locked into slaughter

and see each other at last
with some compassion
we have not allowed ourselves to feel
for fear of revealing
the vital hypocrisy
we need to survive

that we all claim to want fewer
or even none
but we each have caused many
and will not surrender the living we love
until we each cause many more