panicdem By Jeff Cloves
An Animal Rights Poem from All-Creatures.org

panicdem
By Jeff Cloves

I claim a place
on this planet
so do my sons
so do our cats
animals all we are
and intent on survival 
despite inhuman orders
handed-down from above

resist much obey little*
is my mantra
though I don’t 
resist my brain
and I do 
obey my heart
how can this cause hurt?
as well to remember
warfare is ever
our greatest plague**
while the world sees fit 
to wash its bloody hands
of it

*Walt Whitman
** 75 million people were killed in World War 2 and more civilians died than the military – the number of non-human creatures who were murdered goes un-recorded

Return to: Animal Rights Poetry