APE - Against Primates in Experiments

 BLOOD MONEY

I am entrenched in the gruesome reality of your wickedness

I am lost to the walls of your futile struggle for significance

I am braced by the waves of your blood red seas

I can see you, but you cannot see me.

I am at work on the control of my pain whilst you sleep

I am waiting for release; I am the stain on your feet

I am who I am; I cannot be your friend

You are worthless and cruel, you begin where I end.

I and others like me are the tools of your trade

We are purpose grown; we will mend, bleed and mend

We wait in dark corners for our lifeblood to fade

When we are tortured you will be paid.

You believe you are right but we know you are wrong

You write numbers in books and then you go home

You keep us in cages and ignore how we suffer

You talk to each other, tonight a light supper.

You wear gloves and white coats, you wear cruel eyes

We have been waiting for all of our lives

We are the word 'sorrow' we know the noise 'hurt'

Lights out, lights on, tomorrow our turn.

Our children are taken, you take all you want

Our teeth are broken, our limbs soiled and bent

Our fingers are chewed and our minds crave repair

You have no time for conscience or care.

Vivisection is your life; it pays you to be silent

No matter the sentient beings you silence

You have your freedom, you are protected by law

I clutch at the bars, I offer a paw.

I wait and I wonder, I hear my friends die

Right here beside me through pleading eyes

We are unseen, forgotten, we are hidden from hope

We are lost to a system that gives you the rope.

What madness has made you hurt beings like me?

What wrongs have we done to your cruel species?

You steal us from forests, you take our last breath

One by one we are gone, until none are left.

You take every second of our time on this earth

You take guilt laden profit, blood money for worth

You kill babies and mothers and sisters and brothers

What people are you? What lies have you covered?

I cannot move, I am your unable enemy

Fear renders me useless in a struggle for autonomy

See how I gargle and groan as you pass

See how my blood spatters thick on the glass

Such willpower you have to ignore these poor sights

Such incredible stoicism against animal rights

Such impossible barbarity, indifference and vanity

Who taught you to stand by your unethical morality?

Who said it was right? Who looked upon you with charm?

Which corporate suit said they'd keep you from harm?

Whose company do you keep when you socialise with a smile?

Do you remember my suffering as you leave me for a while?

Can you even recall the first animal you murdered?

Was it the cat in room 2, or the dog or the primate?

Did you wonder why the rabbits curled up in a ball?

Did you think of the mice while they squeaked one for all?

Did you never once think of our needs or our pain?

When you opened the cage again and again...

Did our eyes not reveal why we hate you so much?

Did you not understand why we recoil from your touch?

I hope you can sleep without trouble or fear

When you know how we live and you know we are here

Wherever you are we are proof of your crime

We exist, we are life, we are the shame of mankind.

Maria Daines

2009