The Cows' Statement

We are fed that we might feed others.
We are seen as dull,
above all as uncomplaining.

 In consequence, there is a taking
beyond the need
of brother and sister for eating.

 We are fed and bled
and cut up and packaged as meat
or they take our milk, 
if we're female 
and spotted and lucky.

 Our barns have been turned into factories,
our fields to lots,
our children reduced to what sells.

 We are forced to grow 
to meet greed in the end that kills;
for fat there is no reprieve.

 We were given names: Elsie and Daisy and Mary,
sometimes made pets,
at least for the time we were young.

Now we regret 
that our giving receives no respect,
even our fat  
that once was burned for gods
as sin is banned,
even from healthy diets 
we once died to fill.