I saw a dead body today
I was coming from work
As I came face to face
With the carcass of an adult pig
Someone had him slung over his shoulder
And was carrying him into a restaurant
The pig's eyes were wide open
As if he were shocked to death
I was stuck in my tracks
For what seemed like hours in my mind
But minutes in reality
Those eyes . . .
Those eyes must have looked at his killer
Begging for his life
Those eyes
Must have said to someone
“I have the right to exist”
So why was he dead?
I passed by
Clutching my heart
My eyes grazed the dead roasted fowl
Hanging by their necks in the window
As I neared the end of the block
There were tears in my eyes
I couldn't understand
How could people be so heartless?
How many have to die
For someone else's pleasure?
How long will it take for everyone to notice
That slavery of animals
Should not be accepted?
How many of my ancestors
Were treated like today's farm animals?
How many of us look the other way?
When I hear of calves
Being taken from their mothers
To be sold as veal
I can hear the wailing voices of mothers
Crying for their babies
As the slave master takes them away
The mother cow breastfeeds the human race
My ancestors breastfed the white race
So when I looked into those stunned eyes today,
No one could have said to me,
“What's the big deal?” “It's just an animal.”
I could have remembered a time
When someone might have said the same about me