Killing Conscious
Animal Rights Poetry and Prose By Heidi Coon From All-Creatures.org

Poems of compassion dedicated to the non-human animals who share this planet with us and the people who fight for them.

Killing Conscious
By Heidi Coon

The fire crackled, flames dancing smoky
While we sat, they all began a story
I listened well, as they told me
Hunting! The way to feed my family
Nobly
Honorably
They told of the challenge, the camaraderie
They spoke of the skill, and the bravery
Sportsman! Ah, admirably!
Marksman! Oh, favorably!
Hours passed, the fire dwindled measurably
To my tent I retired, nearly tirelessly
The first hunt! I tossed & turned sleeplessly
The hours until dawn seemed an eternity
Off to slumber I drifted begrudgingly
I awoke; first light, shining gloriously
I ate my breakfast voraciously
My gun, my hat, my site tuned precisely
We walked quickly, but quietly
A ground blind waiting there for me
Blending into the woods so perfectly
I slid inside to sit, waiting patiently
The sound of the forest a dulcet cacophony
The chickadees singing so beautifully
The smell of the moss, and wet bark so heady
The slightest snap of a twig and I’m scanning intensely
There, behold! A buck stands so magnificently
He is still, and obviously...
Wary
He sniffs the air suspiciously
I raise my gun carefully
The site aims at his chest, lethality
My breath catches in my own chest cavity
I pulled the trigger and watched a tragedy
The bullet hit true, and his body dropped heavily
His mouth gaped, his breath heaved laboriously
His legs twitched, then straightened spasmodically
I watched the life drain from him completely
Utterly
The chickadees were silenced by catastrophe
Gun powder hid the moss’ smells from me
This vulgarity
This animal I killed is my nobility?
This gun speaks of my bravery?
No. This is moral bankruptcy
This is lack of sagacity
This is a vulgar display of power, blatantly
This is a dead body, laying motionlessly
This is death, this is bloody
This is superiority
Supremacy
Depravity

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