The Gift
Let us give a gift to the world,
a gift of joy and boundless peace.
Just for a moment,
let us see through the eyes
of those, so much weaker than us,
who suffer:
An infant prisoner, the veal calf,
crying in darkness for the mother
he has never known,
her milk collected for "higher" appetites.
The egg-layer huddling painfully
in cramped confinement, destined never
to know the joy of sheltering chicks