Vegetarians

Vegetarians are cruel, unthinking people.

Everybody knows that a carrot screams when grated.

That a peach bleeds when torn apart.

Do you believe an orange insensitive

to thumbs gouging out its flesh?

That tomatoes spill their brains painlessly?

Potatoes, skinned alive and boiled,

the soil’s little lobsters.

Don’t tell me it doesn’t hurt

when peas are ripped from the scrotum,

the hide flayed off sprouts,

cabbage shredded, onions beheaded.

Throw in the trowel

and lay down the hoe.

Mow no more

Let my people go!