The flavor of blood is evident
in meat—no matter the kind of meat:
turkey meat
chicken meat
pork meat
steak-hamburger-hotdog-bacon-
meat—no matter the amount of salt
it won’t cover up
blood—
chewing each fibered
morsel tender, carful
not to bite bones—grinding
meat in clenched
teeth, swallowing—
blood—
the meat came from somewhere else—
someone else hacked it—
we didn’t have to watch, so we chew,
forgetting until the metallic iodine
salty blood hits the tastebuds and we chew
again—
blood—
ignore the plasma on the tongue, pretend
it wasn’t once
a bird
a cow
a deer
an elk
sheep-lamb-pig-duck—
blood—
that would cluck or suck-
up slop in the fields
pens—
forget it once had
eyes
a face
a mother
a dream—
blood—
while giving thanks
sitting around thanksgiving
tables with thanksgiving
forks thanksgiving
knifes digging into thanksgiving
turkey-mashed-potato-stuffing-plate
thank the soul with the life
stolen from it—its carcass
slipped between
lips to a grinning
ah!—
blood!
© All Rights Reserved Caroline Adele O’Brien
Kintsugi Poets Society 
Caroline, this is a very powerful message, beautifully penned. Thanksgiving looked upon from a different perspective:
‘ thank the soul with the life
stolen from it—’
And the imagery is so vivid, I can taste blood as I read it.
Thank you, so much, Irina! 🙂 Yes, I suppose it is a different take on Thanksgiving. Hahaha! I remember sitting in my high school science class, listening to the teacher preach about how a human’s life was worth more than a cow’s life, which is worth more than a pig’s life, which is worth more than a fish’s life, etc.–and it made me so angry! Just because they’re smaller than us, or can’t speak our language, or can’t stand up for themselves, doesn’t mean their life is worth less than ours–so the theme tends to appear in my work over and over again. I’m glad to hear that the imagery came across the way I intended it to. Thank you for your lovely comment, Irina! 🙂
My pleasure, Caroline. 🙂