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Vegetarians hate on soul-
ingesting way too much.
They say they do it
Out of love – so
out of touch:
how can they be good lovers
when they won't taste sweat,
won't chew on skin,
won't let us die
for them?
In a world where spiders and
flies share space, mantises
eat their mates, and
worms rend flesh
for the grapes,
all I can do
is cry for
them.
Morrissey made an appearance on The Colbert Report a few weeks back, being musically pro-forma, as befits his jaded, human-nature debasing, dogma-imposing brand of vegetarianism. Colbert handled him well – prodded him just enough (Morrissey: “Animals are nicer than humans and they’re conscious beings…” Colbert: “Well, I know a lamb that’s a fucking asshole. Can I eat him?”). I would have asked Morrissey whether he's ever killed an ant … or thought about the life inside a plant's xylem/phloem veins. What a species-ist.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, I stumbled onto this quote in the New Yorker. It gives me comfort to know I'm not the only one who sees “It tastes good, it feels right to the senses” as a valid argument.
From Part 1 of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography:
"I believe I have omitted mentioning that in my first Voyage from Boston, being becalm'd off Block Island, our People set about catching Cod & hawl'd up a great many. Hitherto I had stuck to my Resolution of not eating animal Food; and on this Occasion, I consider'd with my Master Tryon, the taking every Fish as a kind of unprovoked Murder, since none of them had or ever could do us any Injury that might justify the Slaughter. – All this seem'd very reasonable. – But I had formerly been a great Lover of Fish, & when this came hot out of the Frying Pan, it smelt admirably well. I balanc'd some time between Principle & inclination: till I recollected, that when the Fish were opened, I saw smaller Fish taken out of their Stomachs: – Then, thought I, if you eat one another, I don't see why we mayn't eat you. So I din'd upon Cod very heartily and continu'd to eat with other People, returning only now & then occasionally to a vegetable Diet. So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for every thing one has a mind to do. – "
– Franklin Writings, Library of America (1987)
* Thanks to Kris (buck & bass), Krista (ducks & coy), Jonathan (beef drippings), and Cindy (young cannibals) for making this collage full.
This is a really cool poem. I love how you see vegetarianism from a different perspective--taking a well-known idea and making it new. I smiled at the idea of what you call a "specie-ist" because that's exactly what I call my vegetarian friend. I interpreted your poem with the idea eating meat isn't wrong, but rather it's part of the natural order. Maybe you meant it to be satirical, but I prefer to see it as a comment on how humans are animals themselves, thus subject to the same natural rules. I’m not vegetarian, but I love animals—in fact, I appreciate them so much that I want to be like them and eat other animals.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, I love the shape you wrote it in. Is there significance to the shape that adds to the meaning of the poem?
Also, I liked the way you ended the poem. I like that line "all I can do is cry for them" is left kind of vague--like you are crying for the vegetarians but also for the animals that eat other animals. I don't know if you meant to do that, but it brought the poem full circle and connected not only your poem together, but also the natural life cycle in the universe (if that makes sense). Thanks for your work. I really enjoyed the poem and the artwork as well. --Joani G.
I tend not to do satire too much (or when I do, it's veeerrry over-the-top: life's too short & language too slippery for being overly-subtle).
ReplyDeleteI meant that I cried for the vegetarians - they're missing out on the cycle. I think it's cool that animals are eating one another - it's a brutal but indisputable sign of acceptance.
Thanks, JG.
Ha! I remember seeing that Morrissey interview on The Colbert Report. It looked like Morrissey was ready to punch Stephen in the face at the end of it.
ReplyDeleteI've thought about a lot of the ideas you covered in "Eat Me ..." too. I'm sure there are the types of vegetarians out there who would firstly identify themselves as vegetarian before all else, not by race, gender, or religion, etc. I don't see how such militant vegetarianism can be warranted at a time like this when there are greater problems at hand beyond the moral ambiguity of eating animals. Surely you don't see people being labeled as anti-sweatshop labor or anti-war the same way vegetarians are labeled.
Sometimes I wonder if people have too romanticized of a view towards animals. Dolphins, for instance, are seen as these cute intelligent creatures that balance balls on their noses for fish, but if you ever came across a *ahem* how do i say this? virile male dolphin it would probably rape you. Chimpanzees are often portrayed in movies as adorable mini humans and that gives people the false impression that chimps are docile. When you see a chimp smiling at you, it's not a sign of endearment but of aggression. Animals aren't nicer than humans, they're just neutral.
I could understand the argument for vegetarianism on the idea that the way the meat is produced is immoral, but it shouldn't be limited to meat because the companies that produce non-meat goods are probably as corrupt as the Tysons and Smithfields of the world. Eating local and responsibly made food should be the battle we're fighting, not the battle against meat eating. Sorry if I ranted a bit, but that's just the effect the poem had on me. Kudos to you.
The title of this poem reminded me of a part of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the Restaurant at the end of the Universe book. Have you read it? There's a part where the protagonists eat at a restaurant and the animals they eat have been genetically bred so that they can communicate that they want to be eaten. The diners get to pick which parts of the animal to eat and the animal advertises that his rump is very good because he's been exercising it and eating a lot of grain.
It's interesting that you brought a sexual side of vegetarianism into the poem in your second stanza. Was this directed at the presumed asexuality of Morrissey or a poke at the notion of purity that vegetarians like to portray themselves as?
I feel similarly towards both religion and vegetarianism. It's fine that people practice it(to an extent), but I hate it when they become proselytizing.
You do realize that you're proselytizing a little bit here yourself, yes? (I differ with you on the assertion that "Animals aren't nicer than humans, they're just neutral" ... [A] humans are animals; that's a false dichotomy, and [B] neither are "just neutral" - we are all rationally instinctual in relation to the environment that stimulates us)
DeleteI bring in the issue of sexuality to keep from attacking/antagonizing their stance as a WHOLE - rather, I state a very specific concern about the sometimes hateful PART of their stance, and how that might run contrary to (not only to their life-respecting intent, but) their personal happiness and sense of natural fulfillment as the animals they are in this natural, self-balancing food web of which humans are [an omnivorous] part.
Of all your poems, the satire in this one is fantastic. I definitely agree with you – vegetarians are missing out!
ReplyDeleteWhat I got from this poem was that in a world of animals eating each other, a vegetarian excluding themselves is just silly because they are going against the food chain cycle and what is natural for humans. As a species, humans are unique in that they have the capacity to decide what they want to eat and have a moral and emotional feeling when it comes to eating other animals. Vegetarians especially embody that emotional awareness (flaw) as they won’t eat meat because they love animals and don’t want to contribute to the killing. I don’t support killing animals for sport, but if it serves the purpose of feeding families, then I think it’s necessary for life to persist.
Your third stanza was a great characterization of our world, especially in that it shows the reality behind the relationships among animals that eat each other. Then the last stanza about “all I can do is cry for them” is very a great ending to this poem pitying the vegetarians for food habits and their separated lives away from the natural order.
Thanks for sharing this poem.
Jackson Casady
There's a difference between a pacifist vegetarian & a spiteful vegetarian - if they conscientiously avoid beef patties at a barbecue, and they double up on the bean dip and beer, I don't think they're missing out so much.
DeleteIf they wrinkle their noses and say, "Ew, it smells like dead animal," then yeah, they're missing out on more than vitamin B-12.
This take on vegetarians turns the tables on them; normally they tend to be the ones feeling sorry for people who consume meat, pitying us and preaching about our lack of morals. When I was younger and learned that some people choose to not eat meat because they believed it was inhumane and immoral I remember feeling so guilty that I ate meat. I liked animals, why was I consuming them? Did eating meat make me a horrible person? I got over it for the most part, but sometimes on occasion I feel that same guilt, especially when I’m in the prescense of vegetarians who are very vocal in their choice. This poem is so reassuring to me, obviously eating meat doesn’t make you a horrible person. What does make you a bad person is not being able to respect one’s personal choices. Respecting another individual’s decisions is part of being kind to one another, and vegetarians are hypocritical when they believe they are being kind to animals, while not being kind to other people. Consuming something is in a way, an act of passion, and vegetarians not only lack out on nutrients, but lack the ability to love fully and completely.
ReplyDeleteOf course, let's not put all vegetarians in the same bucket: you're talking about proselytizing vegetarians (as is this poem) -- they're the one's who are missing the full meaning of that compassion which is purportedly behind their diets.
DeleteJust like being a vegetarian, there are ways of eating meat that make you a "horrible person." If you take more chicken than you can eat, then throw those hard-grown body parts in the trash ... you're being horrible. If you scarf down ribs and steaks gluttonously to sustain an abnormal 400-pound body mass, rather than thinking about each creature you ingest and trying to eat reasonably ... you are being horrible.
No path is fool-proof. Whatever path you choose, walk it well.
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ReplyDeleteI really enjoy that this view of vegetarianism is highlighted in written work. Like how it was addressed “that they (the vegetarians) do it out of love”, yet their way of life is not appreciative of the love and the life that the animals had given and sacrificed for the consumption and the livelihood of the humans. This view of vegetarianism greatly reminds me of how the Native Americans viewed taking the lives of their prey. They valued what the animals had sacrificed by being chosen to give their lives to continue the lives of the Natives by feeding them with their nourishment. People who do not value the lives taken from animals are not in effect helping the animals cause, but their are hurting their cause overall.
ReplyDelete