Karen Friedland: Ahimsa

My Dad liked tripe, 

pig’s trotters, veal, calamari 

and the like – 

all manner of murdered species. 

.

In our last night together, 

at the hospital, 

I kept the channel locked to “Weird Food,” 

because I thought he’d like it, 

then left the room 

when the inevitable killings happened – 

small rodents skewered, 

furry, confused lambs being slaughtered, 

a cow’s head made into cheese.

. 

You could say 

it was a vegetarian’s revenge, 

but then I never saw him again, 

so you could say 

no one won that one. 

—

Ahimsa is a Sanskrit word meaning “non-violence toward all living things”

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Copyright 2019 Karen Friedland

Karen Friedland’s Places That Are Gone is available from Nixes Mate Books.