2. Exsanguination
The steer next to the sow, the sow
next to the chickens eating their last
fill of pebbly grain. Don’t talk
to me about order in the universe
if you’ve never had your hands
gape wide from the spill of inside
to outside, warm and twitching
on the grass, slick dark jewels
staining everything in their radius.
Momentum means when something starts,
it gains distance and speed. Even when
the not yet completely deleted animal
is vertical and twitching on the hook,
the heart pumps like an efficient machine,
trying to compensate. Imagine the body
bleeding out its whole life in under
15 seconds, on concrete. One swift
blow to sever the largest arteries—
this, the worker’s devotion until the end.
Because they occupy the same gutted ground.
*
“…So far, it has been the workers who have borne all the consequences of the employer’s violations. ICE could have decided to audit this employer, and forced him to pay fines and correct his practices. Instead they conducted a raid that left over 160 children without a parent from one day to the next.
No charges have been filed against the company.” ~ “ICE Came for a Tennessee Town’s Immigrants. The Town Fought Back.”