I sometimes hear people complain
of all the things we eat,
getting really hung up about
the consumption of meat,
Most are caught up in their feelings,
thus not worth talking too,
a few will try to reason out
some kind of point-of-view.
They'll say they don't want to be part
of bringing death or pain,
as if they will get virtue points
for choosing to abstain,
but when I think more about it
the whole things falls apart,
when it comes to how we survive
I don't know where to start,
perhaps with a quite simple claim
to which the truth attests:
That every single man alive
was born to live off death.

Is not a farmer a killer
of every crop he plants?
You pull a carrot from the ground,
the carrot plant is damned.
Every time you cut down that wheat
you risk killing the grass,
and each potato you dig up
bring death to the plant fast.
And every piece of fruit you pluck
is a tree abortion,
you want to eat without killing?
I say it can't be done.
Plowing a field will slaughter all
the mice, and moles, and bugs,
also chews up their earthly homes,
all the lairs they've dug.
Even clearing a field itself
brings death on a grand scale,
the trees and critters now displaced,
most could not even wail;
All replaced for a single plant,
it's corn supremacy!
Which cannot live without man's help,
unlike the now-dead tree.
Unless you're eating salt alone
I'd say it's a fair bet,
that just like every man that eats,
you're living off of death.

But why limit it to mankind?
that view is much too small,
when animals are considered,
this truth applies to all.
The predator is obvious,
they kill to lie off flesh,
has one ever sworn off the meat?
I haven't seen it yet.
But even the ‘kind' herbivores
cannot escape the curse,
I've seen deer ear a baby squirrel,
they're no better or worse.
And don't they face the same truth that
the human farmer does?
How much grass have the grazers killed
eating the food they love?
How many trees, how many plants…
the damage they inflict,
survival means that others die,
it's a truth quite tragic.
Even trees feed on rotted life
decomposed in the dirt,
they don't just eat sunlight alone,
their roots feed on our hurt.
If all life operates this way
then why should we all stress?
Since every single animal
survives only off death.

But despite all these negatives
a thought occurs to me,
does death only bring great evil
to our society?
Does not the eternal nothing
drive people to have kids?
Has not the ear of our last end
pushed great things that we did?
How many inventions were made
to try and leave a mark?
How many great ideas have come
from pondering the dark?
Were not many medicines made
by those who would prolong?
Is not a book the author's mind
left behind when he's gone?
What flavor would life have at all
without its opposite?
Is not the limit on our time
what makes us value it?
Can we say that it's always bad
when everything we do
has meaning only because death
is always hunting you?
Perhaps instead of protesting,
reflect, and save your breath,
since every single one of us
was born to live off death.