A poem split into three sections with digital art around the words. The words change style to reflect a synthetic to organic feeling. The first section is surrounded by clipart of five tubes of bright colored paste, a tomato plant, and a brain that is half electronic and half organic. The second section is next to a digitally drawn flower pot circled by a vine. There is an unnaturally perfect flower standing straight up. Its roots are layered over the pot and escape the page. The final section has a digitally drawn squirrel sleeping next to two dandelions.
Plant Eaters

One day vegans won’t
eat anything besides
artificial paste

The youth of the future
will sit in disbelief,
as we did when told
of a monstrous history,
and teachers drone on
about unfeeling plants

“They didn’t know flowers grow
homesick when moved?
That the trees feel pain
and the lilac fights back
when you cut off a sprig?”

Is plant life so alien?

There is a vine that has eyes,
plants that send warnings
to their brethren,
and old trees that nurse
saplings in forests and form
networks of mutual aid.

Can we not accept that we
are part of the food chain?
A rabbit eating a dandelion
is no more moral than
a wolf eating a squirrel


I feel a little commentary would be good for this poem. It's named for how certain militant vegans will unironically call people 'meat eaters.' Its just silly to me. I have no problem with vegans as an idea, this is just my reasoning for not being vegan/vegetarian, as I did consider it several years ago.

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