Not Where It Is From

bacon, burgers, chicken nuggets 

you may have bought them

from a restaurant 

or the grocery store

but that is not 

where they came from

that flesh belonged to a body 

that muscle was attached to bones,

to nerves, to a head

with a brain that knew

pain and fear and human betrayal 

to a heart that pumped blood

blood that was spilled all over 

the floor of the slaughterhouse 

directly because of that dollar

you just handed over 

to purchase the remains 

of their now lifeless body 

your denial does not 

change their reality 

your hope that they 

lived a happy life,

before you wished them dead,

does not offer them comfort

you know taste,

they knew suffering

but their suffering

is easy to ignore 

in the checkout line

where their bleeding bodies

are nowhere in sight

Written October 28, 2018