I honor life by not taking it anymore. Not a fish's life.
Not a calf's. No one's brother or child.

I did violence. I put it between my teeth
and it formed my blood, and I took blood.

Now I eat what they ate in Eden before violence.
Now I ask forgiveness for the life I've taken

that wasn't mine to take—the man, and the calves
and fishes, the chicks and their mothers.

The cops laugh. Their work is domination.
They lord over, and some men on the block

call themselves kings. But I am done with that
in every soul of me, every body.
v