Poems by Catherine Jefferson

“Pigeon Pie”
             By Catherine Jefferson

Feathers everywhere,
like a cushion ripped apart,
discarded.
His little, lifeless body
all limp in your hands,
as you gently move him
from the violence of the road
to a greener resting place.

An onlooker watches.
Pigeon pie
he jokes; I laugh
awkwardly, to be polite
because my circle of compassion
includes this stranger’s feelings
(conditioned to be nice).

But you’re like ice,
thinking only of the birds, you retort:
Idiots speeding!

The onlooker left eating his words.


“17 million mink”
             By Catherine Jefferson

Strange to call it a cull
when they were bred
(short, miserable life)
just for death,
for frivolous fashion.

Covid, King of Zoonoses,
mutating in these prisoner hosts
(packed cell to cell),
should teach us a lesson:
our future needs compassion.

- Catherine Jefferson is a social science researcher focused on science policy and animal welfare and is co-founder of Humane Aware, an animal welfare NGO based in the UK. She enjoys creative writing and has recently completed a Wild Ways to Writing poetry course with British ecopoet Helen Moore.

Copyright©2021 by Catherine Jefferson. All Rights Reserved.