1979 School Excursion (blessed are ye vegetarians)

[Juan Juanders]

When I was maybe a couple past seven
I discovered that all cows do not go to heaven
Some go to factories just out of town
trucked in on road-trains dusty and brown
The big school excursion was getting on great
'til we came to the beasts stumbling in through the gate
rolling their eyes back and screetching in fear
as the foul tin shed rattled with murderous cheers
of men throwing testicles, red-white-brown eyeballs
(forgive me, meat-lovers who just took a mouthful)
while outside the factory by the blood drain
floated offal and carcusses, sludgy cow brains
The crocodiles feasted, they snapped and they snarled
right by the jetty where fishing-folk yarned
Where Dad turned the Holden right down at the end
In seven-point-turns as time would suspend
while I'd lie on the floor of the car and I'd hide
(just so I wouldn't be there if I died)
For a few years then I didn't touch meat
and I never on jetties sit dangling my feet!

[imaginary friend]

Hello Juan,

I liked your poem so much! Lighthearted + serious, well blended.

The subject is compelling. The concept of capturing the moment of disillusion when a child realizes that adults/parents will not protect them from everything, and that it is a harsh world out there. It's up to us adults to reassure our children that it is also a beautiful world out there.

Best to you; I enjoy your posts.

[Juan Juanders]

Thank you Imaginary.
Nice to meet you, I enjoy your posts too.

Sometimes, sadly, adults/parents do not protect children from much at all as they struggle through their delicate formative years, and yet the child may still manage to see and wonder at beauty all around. Tis a wonderful triumph of spirit/mind, is it not?
The violent beauty of nature in the crocodiles, for example: I was long fascinated with their apparent lack of empathy... and fearful to a very deep respect.
At least they were a danger I could see and understand and therefore protect myself against, though, unlike some of the terribly destructive hidden dangers children can be exposed to.

I try to balance protecting my own children with giving them the freedom to find beauty (alongside stark reality) in the world, and equally importantly, in themselves. It is an oft exhausting challenge, yet the rewards are mostly spectacular.

Juan

[GinaDCG]

Sometimes, sadly, adults/parents do not protect children from much at all as they struggle through their delicate formative years, and yet the child may still manage to see and wonder at beauty all around.
Juan

You touch on one of my deepest parental, and societal fears:

I was a rebel parent, or, at least I tried to be. In an era when all suburban moms were supposed to be fearful of "the satanists" who lurked behind every tree and never let their kids out of their sights, I, rather, urged my kids to go out and play WITHOUT me. Oh horrors! I was so negligent! I was reported to Health and Human Services once because I dared to let -- even encourage! -- my 7 year old to walk home 1/3 mile through our self-contained neighborhood, from her bus stop.

I wanted my children to be safe, but I also wanted them to figure out who they were. This I knew would not happen if all their experiences were filtered through me, or were framed by the designers of the video game.I did my best at giving them this freedom, but I had to be quite creative to give them an approximation of my own free childhood.

I believe in the maxim, "Children grow up when we're not looking."

Loved the poem; you capture so well the collision between your child's view of the world and a soboring reality; and then, in your title and your closing lines, share your child's resolution to the conflict. Succinctly and well.

It made me remember a similar trip to a dairy (not slaughterhouse) when I was @ 7. The dairy was well run, the cows were happy -- and perhaps, framed by this experience, I continue to consume dairy.