Reptilian People
Animal Rights Poetry By Lynne Goldsmith From All-Creatures.org

You carry the death
of three crocodiles—
or alligators are they?
in that bag of
what does it matter
manufacturer—yours
of skinned alive
for Hermès
fashion designer
garnering 43,000—
or was it more than
400,000 dollars?—Birkin
diamond and gold
Himalayan style
most expensive
handbag all the way
from Padenga
or Lone Star—
or was it Georgia?
for Prada? Vietnam?
Louis Vuitton?
in dank pits
of darkness
for no room
the tanks on another farm
to be built there’s talk
for 50,000 Australian
crocs, this one prison
to hold—to force down
plunger through
head, spine to tail
body all tightly held
rod for pithing,
ramming brain,
add the sawing
of neck, stabbing
of vertebrae (cervical),
of no escaping losses
bleeding out can take time
for belly-makings of design
in multibillion-dollar industry
being able to say
killer label holds
in your hands the price
of what never had life.

©Lynne Goldsmith, 2020

Photo by Will Mu from Pexels