The Menagerie Of Suffering Poem by Romella Kitchens

Animals pray. I think they do.
The lambs know when it is shearing season.
The lambs know they will be hit to guide them in to be hung up by their fragile legs from their heavy bodies.
They know they may bleed.
They know they may die.
They must think, have I not been good enough to receive kindness?
They must think, will I make it through?
Prayer for less biting metal. Prayer for unbroken bones. Prayer for food and water afterwards.
Prayer for the dead Land and lambs.
Prayer for a more merciful path.
Prayer for the male sheep castrated without anything to stop the pain.
Prayer they will go home to Heaven before next shearing season.
The nicer man who used to calm them, pet them and didn't hang them just laid them down to shear them, called them a good girl or a good boy when it was completed, gave them a tasty treat, is gone, retired.
Animals pray mercy will bring him back or someone like him...
Even if just for one season, one glorious tender time.