If you follow the sink, you’ll reach a stream,
then a river, then the ocean.
Though no one in my family can swim.
We’d all drown if it weren’t for these four walls
and someone’s paycheck.
Fear is the true animal instinct in a world full of broken hearts.
In the kitchen, I wash the blood off a chicken’s flesh
and then off my own while the red pours down the drain.
I fear nature when it isn’t silenced by something man-made.
I don’t think of where the meat came from
while holding its soft skin in my soft skin.
It’s hard to imagine the pain of another without being swallowed by it.
When I was a child, my mother would starve herself
so that her children could eat their fill.
You know nothing of love until you watch someone go hungry for you.
Even then, what do you know of hunger?
I am a good person, I think,
though I need the flesh of another to make it through the long, endless day.
I don’t believe being a vegetarian is any better.
I slice the meat of an onion, and I’m overcome by the life it spills.
An onion makes us weep because it loves us,
though that, too, is a defense mechanism.
I think beauty is when a person is so afraid of losing something,
they cry.
I’m in love with reciprocity.
I eat, you eat.
I starve, you starve.
I hunt, we live.
Home is where I only fear what will break through the walls.
For instance, my father hit my mother, and now the door is locked.
People cry when they see how meat is made,
until they want to eat.
Then I dare you to stop an animal from devouring the whole village.
Cooking is the only way I know how to care for a person.
I’m old enough to teach my mother how to eat.
When I make a plate, I’m saying, “Look,
my love is so real, you can feel it on your teeth.
I killed a whole family as proof.
Don’t cry, it’s okay.
We’ll never be worth the pain that got us here.”
—
It’s never too early to start talking about Father’s Day on The Good Men Project. We’re looking for sponsors and contributors for our #ModernDayDad campaign. https://t.co/WJvKqq2kTe pic.twitter.com/j66LNCY0VG
— The Good Men Project (@GoodMenProject) March 11, 2019
—
We celebrate Gay Pride all year long. But this year, we’re doing some special programing for a large-scale campaign #LoveEqually. We’re looking for both sponsors and contributors. Check it out! https://t.co/tkraXFPxLL pic.twitter.com/X2FlBEZb8Y
— The Good Men Project (@GoodMenProject) March 11, 2019
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