No Rapping The Dead
By M. Edward King, Vegan Songs
An Animal Rights Poem from All-Creatures.org

We're living in a nation
where there's growing condemnation
of what is done to those who cannot talk

I was blind to all that pain
so I couldn't feel the shame
in that broken piece of body on my fork

Then I wondered could any child
breed a bird that can't be wild
to eat its wings, take off its legs and its head?
no.

So we pay for hidden slaughter
'til we've addicted sons and daughters
to our habit of eating the dead

And it's not so very long
since who could see the wrong
in breeding humans as slaves without pain

It could be a woman without a vote
or killing a leopard for its coat
did we ever see the evil of the day?

So do you think you're any better
now the animals we fetter
outnumber every human ten to one?

And many children hardly eat
because their food has fed your meat
while the blame for this shame you pass on

So give me avocados
and I'll eat tofu burgers
you can even give me black bean curd

But please, don't give me bread
if it's wrapping the dead
remains of the body of a bird

For every piece of flesh you buy
you're paying to breed the next to die
by compassion no longer we've led

And for the cow it's worse, I fear
they rod rape her every year
take every calf, take all her milk
until she's dead.

This choice you say is your right
that you can eat just as you like
and it's merely an opinion that I voice

But your choice, it kills so many
this opinion kills not any
and your victims, do you give them any choice?

So there's more to avocados and eating tofu burgers
than minimizing sickness and your girth

No less than Einstein did resolve
from eating flesh we must evolve
or mankind, he said, may not survive on earth

The age in which we're living is ever more misgiving
over what is done to those who cannot talk
are you blind to all that pain?

Can you not feel the shame
in that broken piece of body
on your fork?