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Ritual slaughter

Halal and  Kosher
Ritual means of slaughter.
Sanctioned by religion.
Such savage butchery.
I swallow my frustration.
Stick a smile upon my face
Make a face to meet
The faces I meet
Pretend I'm neat and tidy
As we do. But not tolerant
Not of this unalloyed cruelty.
We are in a shocking state of blue-hypocrisy
If we let people do, as some people do..
Look in the slaughter house
All colours drain away, except red.
The presiding Imam or Rabbi fade into this unholyday.
I stagger away
Think I'll meet my match in the oncology
Ward. . But no, that is just a cellular malfunction
Not men with an armoury of knives and no pity. .
Inside appalled I am
That the world is so full of cruelty:
Beheading in a church doorway
An unholy trinity:
Three knives, a single scripture, unalloyed butchery
This world is a cold and frightening place bereft of love.

 

◄ Redemption song

The Unwritten ►

Comments

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Aviva Rifka Bhandari

Mon 28th Dec 2020 21:09

Keith I answered something similar privately (without the living in the Middle East part of it)

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keith jeffries

Mon 28th Dec 2020 21:04

John,

Thank you for this poem which resonates with me after living and working in the Middle East for nearly ten years. It felt a strong sense of outrage as it is clearly barbaric in the extreme and quite unnecessary in today's world. Yet it is the religion to which the slaughter adheres. Religion can be very cruel in other ways too.

Keith

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