All Creatures Great and Small
 
         
                    someone I love
                    insists on buying eggs 
                    from caged hens,
                    calls my free-range ones
                    a waste of our money


 
                    someone I like
                    barbecues slabs of meat
                    regularly
                    points out cute lambs and calves
                    in the fields, to his kids


 
                    someone I respect
                    keeps  her labrador chained
                    rather than
                    safety-fence her garden–
                    how she weeps when he dies
 


                   someone I meet
                   campaigns against child abuse,
                   raises eyebrows
                   at my concerns, asks
                   "don't you care about people ?"
 
            

                  someone I birthed
                  experiments on mice,
                  is on the way
                  to finding a cure
                  for childhood leukaemia

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