Secret Teeth

Trash cans ate

syringes and good intentions

each time success escaped

the grasp of latex gloves and lab coats

The scientists begged each new batch of cells

to please multiply into the perfect meat

that never bleeds or needs to sleep or eat

But they never mentioned dreaming

Upon success, the commercials assured

that the raw cubes infused with extra protein

could help save the world which was gasping for air

and grasping for another chance

The animals that survived

all hid in the shadows and pulled knives

when we tried to outsmart them

And not many things grow in the soil

where our hatred exploded

Factories followed the lead scientist’s careful specifications

to produce quiet, profit-sized, edible squares

that don’t sleep or eat or bleed

Manufactured meat slabs would never dream

of breaking free

They were infused with extra proteins

and something else, it seemed

The manufactured meat

had secret teeth that sank venom

into our veins

and drained away the people

they were meant to feed

Save the world

Save the animals

And the perfect meat

infused with secret teeth

found new houses

and ate and slept and dreamed

but they never once

made the earth bleed

Image description – photograph is of the skeletal frame and empty inside of a burned-down house

I wrote this poem after reading that scientists have found a way to grow meat in a lab from stem cells of animals. This meat production method sounds like it could be a good idea. Maybe it’s a good idea. Maybe nothing will go wrong, but so many things could. What if the manufactured meat wasn’t soulless cubes that would just willingly allow themselves to be consumed?