the farms of childhood

When we were kids you could go
to farms
where they would just let you
take bites
out of living animals. Now that
was something
These days, people some people say
animals are unethical,
or immoral to eat.
Now maybe I've got this wrong, but

I don't think that's the world.
Not the one I grew up in, came of age
plying my offers and trades
leveraging my Darwinian charms
for job offers, companionship

- how is any of this possible?
Without the absolutes

of morality? I don't think meat
comes into it at these stakes, but
I could be wrong.

Lying.

Lying comes into it, maybe.
I lied about the farms. I never
got to go