Arlene Corwin Poetry

      For The Good Of All

I must be changing.
Never having thought about
The common good, I skip the meat.
Teary-eyed at sweet small piglets, lamb and cow –
Chickens too,
Gassed or stunned and shot right through
The head –
I’m filled with sympathy and dread,
Glad to replace the flesh with fresh
Fruits, seeds, nuts, veggies, greens,
Beans for protein, and so on.

Let’s come to humankind:
I was blind
To houses falling, forests burning,
Drownings, starvings, orphans yearning –
Which, and more I now abhor…
Now aware of how to share
What I have never thought to share before
In ways ignored or uninformed of:
They’re called love!
All forms of love.

Now to find the course of action
To replace my non-reactions,
Past indifferences oblivious to anguish,
Tarnish, harm or blemish –
And of benefit to none.

Awake these growing mornings
With a breakfast food
Called
“For the common good”,
A better bread to feed and nurture
Future’s good for one and all.

For The Good Of All 7.1.2021 Our Times, Our Culture II; Arlene Nover Corwin