{.,)
oh, to remember a Thursday in November
of family and dinner and laughter and love
the heavenly aroma of grandma’s turkey roasting
the one she raised and grandpa butchered
no more turkey in the straw
no more gobble gobble
no more mating Tom
not enough gravy to disguise
the tasteless leathery flesh
of a tortured life
“Employees stomped on turkeys’ heads, punched turkeys, hit them on the head with a can of spray paint and pliers, and struck turkeys’ heads against metal scaffolding.
“Men shoved feces and feed into turkeys’ mouths and held turkeys’ heads under water. Another bragged about jamming a broom stick 2 feet down a turkey’s throat.
“A supervisor said he saw workers kill 450 turkeys with 2-by-4s.
“One man said he saw a coworker fatally inject turkey semen and sulfuric acid into turkeys’ heads.”
“Grandma,
where do cruel people come from?”
“My angel, my love,
they are what they eat,
and when they eat
tortured flesh
they live with a tortured soul.”