Size / / /

Sympathy evolved peripherally,

a selective way to keep the tribe alive

through the secondhand pangs of trial,

tributaries of tribulation shared by blood,

our hardwired love of Rover and Fluffy just

a shadow of family need in the genes.

But what if we could feel the meat we eat,

taste the fatal throes ol' Bossie endured

as the butcher put a sledge to her head?

What if every whitemeat nugget sliding

greasy down our throats held a grindhouse

flash of Chicken Little, debeaked and choked?

Would we shun personalized burgers

to favor the flavor of fruits and grains?

Would we eagerly flee from carnivory,

ban the slaughter and celebrate salad,

glorify veggies, their tales of pain too dull;

no yardman names the blades he mows.

But righteous sadists might dictate diets of woe:

priests would curse the sins in mother's milk

and tell their flocks to feed the babies Bambi.

Hardening souls for a Heavenly shine, pious

soldiers would savor Apocalyptic glory

in the soylent flesh of every blessed enemy.




Lucy A. Snyder frequently escaped into Clive Barker's worlds when she was in darkest academia pursuing her MA in journalism. She is the author of Sparks and Shadows, Installing Linux on a Dead Badger (from which Strange Horizons has published an excerpt), and the forthcoming Del Rey novel Spellbent. Her writing has also appeared in publications such as Farthing, Masques V, Chiaroscuro, Greatest Uncommon Denominator, and Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. You can learn more about her at http://www.lucysnyder.com.
Current Issue
4 Nov 2024

“Did you know,” the witch says, “that a witch has no heart of her own?”
Outsiders, Off-worlders {how quickly one carves out a corner of the cosmos, / claims a singular celestial body as [o u r s] in the scope of infinity}
Lunar enby folks across here
Wednesday: The 2024 Ignyte Award for Best Novel Shortlist, Part Two 
Friday: A Place Between Waking and Forgetting by Eugen Bacon 
Issue 28 Oct 2024
Issue 21 Oct 2024
By: KT Bryski
Podcast read by: Devin Martin
Issue 14 Oct 2024
Issue 7 Oct 2024
By: Christopher Blake
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
Issue 30 Sep 2024
Issue 23 Sep 2024
By: LeeAnn Perry
Art by: nino
Issue 16 Sep 2024
Issue 9 Sep 2024
Issue 2 Sep 2024
Issue 26 Aug 2024
Load More