Robert Melliard - Sheep

Their wooliness is legend
and their bleat so plaintive
that I'd love to help.

Sheep are famed for being stupid
but they hurt no other creatures
(well, females don't at least) .

We all love lambs but most of us eat them.
This hypocrisy, as in so many fields,
is based on compartments in our minds:
there's one for the sheep
but another for their meat.


If I worked in a slaughterhouse
I'd be a vegetarian:
as it is, I eat lamb rarely,
and always with guilt.

Robert Melliard

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sheep-17/