***
How Melinda became a vegetarian
she never agreed
when her parents sold the house
and with it went all the farm animals she grew up with,
but she was seven,
her words were swept away by rolling tears,
her anger locked inside her tiny fists.
looking through the backseat window
waved goodbye to the house, the lake, the orchard,
two ducks walking with a swinging gait
in the sun.
years after Melinda turned her back to town, and
alongside a husband, a college diploma in geology,
and a bagful of dreams,
got her house back, the lake, the animals-
others, those were long dead.
and even if from time to time
she made her sweetheart meat pies,
the fowl in the yard was free
to gobble, eat grass, swim on the lake,
and walk the streets
in the sun.
(by me)
