Poetry by Havilah Barnett
“Ode to Vegans”
By Havilah Barnett
You lettuce lip
munching rose hip
goat worshiping
ditch of the plastic
and everything drastic
child,
flowering mercy from sleeves.
You, grazing with sheep, elk
& gargling broccoli for pleasure.
Sensitive baby, they say
(with lips still sucking
the teat, on repeat, mouth open
no retreat, hands grasping
they compete & compete)
while you refuse to eat
this foul play: the world’s
most tortured prey. No,
you don’t partake
in flesh that rots
humanity, or free taste buds
to butcher wants to needs.
Some recycle words
to recover excuses,
others view empathy
with a rusted lens—
blaming history for the way
it’s always been. But survival
should never mean prison:
Cows born to death row
chicken-choked, nipple-yoked—
beat like piñatas.
Guts turn candy, a reward
for the corrupt and supporting;
a toast to the bones beneath
kitchen tables.
You, shedding old diets
& starting riots.
You, nesting stomachs full
with hefty gardens.
You celebrate existence
full & alive & without
feeding suffering.
- Havilah Barnett is an undergraduate student at the University of Central Missouri, where she also works as an intern for Pleiades: Literature in Context, and as poetry editor for Arcade magazine. She was awarded the Ginny McTighe Creative Writing Award (2022), and the Charles Francis Martin and Maude Williams Martin Memorial Scholarship.
You lettuce lip
munching rose hip
goat worshiping
ditch of the plastic
and everything drastic
child,
flowering mercy from sleeves.
You, grazing with sheep, elk
& gargling broccoli for pleasure.
Sensitive baby, they say
(with lips still sucking
the teat, on repeat, mouth open
no retreat, hands grasping
they compete & compete)
while you refuse to eat
this foul play: the world’s
most tortured prey. No,
you don’t partake
in flesh that rots
humanity, or free taste buds
to butcher wants to needs.
Some recycle words
to recover excuses,
others view empathy
with a rusted lens—
blaming history for the way
it’s always been. But survival
should never mean prison:
Cows born to death row
chicken-choked, nipple-yoked—
beat like piñatas.
Guts turn candy, a reward
for the corrupt and supporting;
a toast to the bones beneath
kitchen tables.
You, shedding old diets
& starting riots.
You, nesting stomachs full
with hefty gardens.
You celebrate existence
full & alive & without
feeding suffering.
- Havilah Barnett is an undergraduate student at the University of Central Missouri, where she also works as an intern for Pleiades: Literature in Context, and as poetry editor for Arcade magazine. She was awarded the Ginny McTighe Creative Writing Award (2022), and the Charles Francis Martin and Maude Williams Martin Memorial Scholarship.
Copyright©2022 by Havilah Barnett. All Rights Reserved.