Memories of Slaughter

Memories of  Slaughter

We all follow her in

Me, my sisters and brothers

In line behind our mother

To the door through which

Manny had gone before

The air was dark and heavy

The smell of blood

Sweet and cloying

Old flesh decayed and molding

I see the tools and hooks hanging

Cold and sharp

There swaying

Bumping,

Can you hear the sinister clanging

Led to stalls the Troughs await

Filled with swill

My mother, sisters, and brothers

Can't wait

Rushing forward 

they stretch out their necks

In a shadowed corner, I watch

As like their namesakes

They all pig out

The bars come down

No escape now

Then he enters

The one who raised us

Surely he would help

My eyes shine in hope

As I start to step out

No way he would betray us

Then stop

As he pulls a hammer out

Shrinking back

In confusion and fear

I see the shine

of the hammer's head

As slowly his arm

Rises up

A blur and the arm falls down

Then, the sickening crunch

Pink and gray, like froth

brains spill out

My mother's body

Lies across the Trough

Then comes another

Who with an ax takes my brothers

Severed heads

Dead eyes stare up

Blood sprays out

Leaving patterns of red

In the dust

As the knife ends, my sister's life

I close my eyes and realize

I know what no pig should

We live just to die

Just to die