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The New Hire at the Factory Farm Gets Her First Work Order
These piglets are nothing more than machines. Just machines
Harboring the new white meat. You've got to think of them as such
(and even a swine magazine custom written for us farmers tells us so)
Today we'll have you cut out the testicles from the male piglets
And clip off all their little tails. Pain killers? No they don't need any
They're machines, see, and no matter how much they squeal
And wiggle around, don't feel sorry for them. Machines don't feel no pain
When you look into their eyes, just pretend you see a slab of bacon
In the refrigerator or at the store. That's all they are, meat and more meat
After you're done you can kill the runts, sick babies and the deformed -
Just slam their heads as hard as you can onto the floor and throw
Them into a big pile in the corner. We'll clean up the mess later
Pretty soon these babies will be in gestation crates living the American Dream
Like welfare recipients all in a row, in the ghetto. When the sows get pregnant
We'll put them in farrowing crates so they can feed their young without crushing
Them. They can't move around, they just lie on cold wet concrete. That's all
They're good for - god damn that PETA and all those troublemakers. What
Assholes! They actually want us to believe these dirty nasty things have souls
And should be treated humanely. Treated humanely? At a factory farm?
Yeah, you want to buy some prime ocean-front property in Iowa? Really?
I'll throw in a bridge they're building from California to China, too
We've got mouths to feed out there and money to make. There's plenty
Of green in all that flesh that's making all that noise in this god damned
Place. Animal rights folks say they're as smart as three-year-old children
The next thing you know, PETA will have them studying reading, writing
And 'rithmatic. Just cut out their balls and clip off their tails. That's 'nuff
Of a lesson for them today. None of these bastards are astronomers
Or physicists. They're just meat and more meat. That's all they're good for
So It Goes, Mr. Vonnegut Might Say. . .
Today we don't have concentration camps
In the free world but we have factory farms
Where bullies and sadists ply their occultism,
Existentialism and atheism on creatures
That have no rights and no voice. Pigs,
Chickens, turkeys, sheep, beef and even rabbits
Succumb to the unmerciful hands of modern-
Day death camp guards. Highways of meat
Are processed Henry Ford-style to feed
The masses of Homo Sapien fat asses
And the Wendy's redhead chirps, "That's better."
Nobody sees what's in the walls of 200,000-
Square-foot structures made for meat production.
Nobody hears the cries of protest and misery -
Except the occasional hidden camera on the lapel
Of the animal-rights activist planted surreptitiously
In this hell. If pigs could fly they'd certainly fly
The hell out of this bastard of a butcher's barn.
Sometimes someone will open a YouTube
Video and shriek in unmitigated horror
At the barbaric butchery at the hands of mankind.
Meat-loving pizza voyeurs may swear off milk
Or meat for a day or two but normally go back
To carnivorous appetites like nicotine or heroin
Addicts. So it goes, Vonnegut would likely say.
And what else is there to say? If nothing changes,
Nothing changes. This man-made hell is here to stay.
Sam Vargo has written poetry and short stories for print and online literary magazines, university journals and a few commercial magazines. In the past few years, Vargo has turned his focus toward concentrating on commercial fiction in the horror, psychological thriller and mystery thriller genres. However, a strong urge to continue to write poetry and short stories seems to be a vital part of Vargo's life. In the past few months, he's been submitting poetry to online literary 'zines. Vargo worked most of his adult life as a newspaper reporter. He has a BA in Political Science and an MA in English (both degrees were awarded by Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, USA). Vargo was fiction editor of Pig Iron Press, Youngstown, Ohio, for 12 years. His poetry and fiction appear in the following: Antithesis Common, Ascent Aspirations, Blue Fifth, Censored Poets, Centrifugal Eye, The Circle, Clark Street Review, Connecticut Review, The Cynic Online Magazine, Dandelion, Edifice Wrecked, Electric Acorn, Elegant Thorn, Glass - A Journal of Poetry, Guideposts, Gypsy Blood Review, Higginsville Reader, Late Knocking, Licking River Review, Lynx Eye, Mastodon Dentist, National Lampoon Humor Network (College Stories, Dead Frog, The Frown, Points in Case), The Nocturnal Lyric, nthposition, Ohio Teachers Write, Poetry Motel, Projected Letters, Red Dancefloor, Reed, Small Press Review, Verve, undergroundwindow.com, Why Vandalism?, Word Riot, Yasse, and other presses and literary journals.
Email: Sam Vargo
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