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”
Copyright 2019 Karen Friedland
Karen Friedland’s Places That Are Gone is available from Nixes Mate Books.