Animal Rights Poetry By Heidi Stephenson From All-Creatures.org

The Way of Life,
or the Way of Death?

"I want to see cranes in the sky!"
Says Rachel Reeves.

But she’s not talking about
ancient cloud-dancers migrating...

Instead, the earth-shattering machines
that will decimate yet more of England's
(last remaining) "green and pleasant" land,

wiping out new swathes of vital habitat
for yet more wild beings, already forced
to scavenge in the cities' dead zones:
their man-made, mass extinctions ever closer;

bringing the living hell of 'factory farming'
to more millions of terrified, fellow beings,²
who will never see the light of day,
or feel the sun shine on their backs,
or sense the grass beneath their feet
...all pasture bricked over.

All this while 998,784 buildings
lie "out of use" in the UK and
265,000 homes are officially
"long term" "empty."³

"I want to see growth!" She says.

But she's not talking about trees
or hedgerows, woods or wetlands,
(endangered bats and newts officially irrelevant);
just the money, money, money-making
of short-term, face-saving 'economy' -
which is absolutely no saving at all...

All this while prosperous profiteers profit
from the casual, daily destruction,
from the mass deaths of sentient, sapient others.

"I want to see more spades in the ground." She says.

But she's not talking about sustainable allotments,
digging for potatoes, carrots, peas, runner beans,
making life both healthy and affordable,
sharing Earth’s bounty with the wild ones.

All meaning turned, for more pounding...

The Green Dream in blackout now.

A third runway at Heathrow on the cards!

As we determine not to fly,
to walk, cycle, go electric,
to save for a heat pump,
to make Veganuary,
a year-long commitment.

Despite the Red,
now in bed with "business as usual,"
turning ever more deathly Blue...

Despite all benevolence trumped in America...

"Health" now controlled by a killer,
who enjoys dicing live mice and day-old chicks
in his basement blender.⁴

©Heidi Stephenson, 2025

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¹Mahatma Gandhi: On the Wisdom and the Meaning of Life

²Shocking rise in US-style megafarms across the UK revealed in new data

³Council Taxbase 2024 data released by the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities and analysed by Action on Empty Homes

⁴Caroline Kennedy calls cousin RFK Jr. a ‘predator’ ahead of his confirmation hearings to be Trump’s health secretary

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