Literary Vegan: 2018

Sunday 25 November 2018

Peace

It's peaceful indoors

And the kitchen is warm

Forgotten - the noise

And the fear and the harm

That put the animal on the feasting table

Can you celebrate peace

When your food wasn't able

To know the same?

Far away is the pain

Of the face

Now removed

Now replaced

With a plate.

Could our placemats be kindness

To the creatures that trust us

Can our hands spare the bloodshed

We don't see before us.

Living

Inquisitive eyes

Playful feet

Torn apart

Labelled 'Meat'

Life not enough

Without death

Doing as was done

Dimming consciousness

Of living

Eating life with ease

Inquisitive eyes

Playful feet

Copyright LJ Ireton

Thursday 1 November 2018

Small, smiling sleepers
Worn out from chasing apples
Sleep in safety, resting on their mother.
My heart is in that straw
That the piglets snuggle into
A blanket of peace
Unlike the others.
I’m so happy for a moment
But it shouldn’t be momentary
Peace should not be isolated,
Should not be secondary
To suffering as standard,
Substandard living –
Please give the others
Sanctuary.

Saturday 6 October 2018

Objectified

No living being

Should be objectified by

A living being

Saturday 29 September 2018

Mermaid

I'm lost on land

And breathe in the tide

To fill rock pools with light

For like calls to like

And my stars are the sparks of the Sun,

As they strike

The surface of my water sky -

Constellations I can fly to,

Surge and shimmer down through

Under water the outside combines

Without it I thirst -

An island of dust

Isolated by the dry divides.

Monday 17 September 2018

Speaking Out

What is extreme

About asking for peace

On behalf of those living

That know only pain?

When do I shout?

I'm crouched low on the ground

Like a child who's found

Something dying.

Why am I harsh

For showing my heart

Can't bear the sound

Of their silence.

Monday 27 August 2018

Dairy

Dairy

What makes humans do these things

to cows to get their milk?

Some say dairy’s ok because at least

There’s no blood spilt -

But impregnation by a hand is

not the way of the earth

To feed humans their babies’ milk

Is not why cows give birth

Naturally no newborn should be

taken from its mother,

Tube forced down its throat and its milk

given to another

Us! Who do not need it

Cause a mother cow to cry

I don’t know how society

Has had this normalized.

LJ Ireton 2018

Sunday 26 August 2018

Attention

Foot after foot and ten thousand arms

Unison shouts, sounding drums and alarms

We need to do this, to stand up for truth

But people are looking at us and not

You.

Solace

I sought solace with swans

After too much human noise

Their shapes on sunlit water

Soothed an ache inside my mind.

A person, then another

Held out hands to feed a swan

But held no food, just photo smiles -

The bird's expectations undone.

And just like that, the camera flash

Burnt my bubbling peace

Humans tricked the birds

So now, again, they troubled me.

Sunday 19 August 2018

An old man and his dog

Sauntered slowly up to me

He pointed at the bird picture

I'd wanted him to see

Then pointed back down at his dog,

Said "He's just like him, like me"

And I thought as he walked away

Yes, that's it completely.

Seen

For you who suffer behind walls

We will be your windows

On bricks we'll hold up squares of you

Reflections from the shadows

Outside, outside demands you, yet

Outside you'll never see

We will face outside for you

Your faces will be seen.

Tuesday 31 July 2018

Elsewhere

Elsewhere

I sit in

Silence

But I'm always aware

Of the sound of suffering

Elsewhere

I feel useless

I pray for us to

Show kindness

To the

Smallest

In our care.

Monday 23 July 2018

Rescue Haiku

They wait by the doors

You can turn their life around

But they will change yours

Copyright LJ Ireton 2018

Saturday 21 July 2018

Ghost

What have humans done?

That even animals can't be

Animals

When they're your own creation

Or rather

Alteration

Your food has a face

And it's as white as a ghost

You took its colours away

For your gain.

Saturday 7 July 2018

Beings

Beings

They're frightened.
Little hearts beat in alarm
Little lives form a death drum -
One after one after one
They drop off the spectrum
Of beings who feel
Because humans don't feel
It's a problem.
So the animals fear,
Understand,
While humans become numb.

Copyright LJ Ireton 2018

OCD (4)

Every thought

Followed by

Every single footstep

Followed by

Every thought

Is a

Slow

Concentrated

Balance

Along a tightrope

Belonging

To a spiderweb of destruction

That could

Break

With

Any single footstep.

Saturday 12 May 2018

Species

In your eyes
I see all eyes
Held in different shapes
Who feel the same
As you do
Destined for other fates
For what reason?
There is no reason
To distinguish heart from heart
To share a home
With one
Should pardon
The whole
And not the part.

Monday 12 February 2018

Water

Water from a tap

Is no less a waterfall

It can still inspire

Sunday 11 February 2018

Reading

I am stuck inside

I look out the window and feel worse.

Then I look to my side

And see my reading book

That will transport me beyond this city,

Still covered in blankets

And I am grateful.

Animals haiku

I am only sane

In a room of animals ~

Humans confuse me.

Sunday 21 January 2018

Butterfly

Butterfly

I peek out of a tiny hole

In my cocoon

Wondering how they do it -

Like they've never known

This blanket of doubt

Or ugly wings.

They fly,

They inspire

Why does it feel like I have to work

Harder?

I've glimpsed my colours

I know they're there.

For this time in the dark,

I'm going to make them shine

So bright they seem effortless.

Perhaps that's what the others

Are doing.

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