By Beth Levine
Imagine
that this letter S
floats off the page
becomes a strong
rope
that wraps your hands together behind
your back, like officers do
before putting someone in
the back of a police car.
Imagine
that this letter S floats
off the page and becomes a second
strong rope
one end wraps
around your
left leg
the other hoists you up from
where you are reading this poem so
you are
hanging
upside
down.
Imagine
a man coming toward you
knife in hand
pointing at your throat.
You see
blood on his knife
blood on his hands.
There is no
possible escape.
No one to call on
for help.
No way to free
yourself.
You are
trapped.
Alone.
Imagine
how your heart
desperately races as fast
as a jackhammer and your body shakes
like an off-kilter washing machine,
and you can’t seem to breathe and
helpless tears well-up.
Imagine
how you beg for
your life, for
mercy, but your voice is smaller
than you want it to be,
like when you try to wake
from a scary dream
and you scream, but it is not audible,
not rescuing you
from the nightmare and
you keep pushing the air out
until the sound bursts from your lungs.
Imagine
how the man
keeps coming.
You try
to move him, to
touch his heart, but
his eyes are
vacant and he keeps moving
toward you,
knife in hand.
You wonder how he can be
so cold.
You wouldn’t
ever
ever
do this to another.
You couldn’t
ever
disregard their pleas.
Or could you?
Imagine
bacon.
Imagine
ice cream,
your down comforter,
zoos.
Imagine
your leather shoes,
and eggs.
Imagine
chicken wings.
Now you are the man with the knife.
Beth is a psychotherapist and an animals rights activist. She shares her life with two dogs, and enjoys hearing bird songs and being in nature. In her work, whether poetry, art, or both, she helps the marginalized be seen and heard and hopes to contribute to social change by raising awareness.
Photo by Kai Oberhäuser on Unsplash.
So well (and tragically) described — I found this very moving and equally upsetting due to its truth. Thank you, Beth, for this poem that must be shared, and shared often. Someday more will understand when it affects them as it does us.
Beautiful poem, Beth! The imagery really works. I really do imagine those things as I read. I hope this poem reaches many.
Mark, I agree with you, but we must also keep in mind that the oppression and exploitation of humans is still very current. We cannot look at it as oppression and exploitation that has come before us; it is current. We still have enslaved humans, because the exploiters (colonizers, etc) found ways to continue getting free labor and they many ways of keeping their victims at a disadvantage.
That said, the exploitation of everyone who is not human is done at such a high rate our victims every year, far outnumber the total number of all humans who have ever lived.
“There will come a time in the future where we look back in shame at how we ate and used other animals for our pleasure. We will recoil at the violence we sowed upon them for our selfish desires. Just like all forms of oppression and exploitation that have come before us, animal exploitation will end. Which side of history will you be on when the history books have been written?”