We Are Animals

• Dominic Ton, Grade 9
• Poetry
• 2021

We are animals. Bred, fed, and fattened up for the slaughterhouse.
Without our caretaker, we cannot live. Freedom is a lie.
Day by day, we go about our lives—eating, sleeping, eating and sleeping.
Not knowing when, where, or how we will die.
A good, long life we think we have, but it is nothing compared to our caretaker.
100 years is a long time, we tell ourselves, as the 500-year-old tree laughs.
They are waiting for us to die so they can be fed.
Poor countries with no food are high production farms.
We are animals in the palm of their hands.