After a long unintended hiatus, I have decided to post a poem I wrote. I have never attempted to write about my experience of being vegan in a very non-vegan-friendly culture down here in the Deep South, but after the past few months, which have had the recurrent bashing of veganism in American movies and online among friends of friends, I decided to give it a go, for such a build-up must come out in some way. Creative writing continues, even if I am shamefully bad about posting it here:

How alienating it can be
To feel more aligned with those deemed lesser
Than with my fellow humans
How stagnating it can be to see
Blood dripping from their hands and lips
Yet they still laugh at me
As though my choice in kindness
Is alien, to be feared
How sour becomes my ability to
Digest the hypocrisies flung about
And clinging like mold spores on the air
Like a fungus destroying the base
Of our safety, perfectly crumbled
Perfectly obliterated

To claim a love of those lesser
Yet to assist in murdering
So you, the wiser, can eat
What you want
That's killing you anyway
To claim a passion for saving
Pulling bones from the river
Yet setting aside the blood-soaked dirt
As a bed for your next victim

I choose to love you anyway
Despite your flesh-eating disease of
Claiming care for this kind
But consuming that kind
I choose to embrace you anyway
Soaking up your tears of loss and sadness
When your river rat has returned to earth
I choose to empathize with you anyway
Even though I allow you to grind a knife in my gut
Every time it's convenient for you to close your eyes