Unwanted Wealth
On the way home from school
you and Helen stopped
and looked in the window
of the pie and eel shop
where a man was cutting off heads
of live eels
and then slitting them open
and knifing out the guts
and then chopping them
up into small pieces
and Helen said
yuk what's he doing
to those poor eels?
you were engrossed in watching
the man's knife slit through
the necks so easy
that the pieces still wriggled
after he pushed them
into a bucket on the side
people eat them
you said
whether jellied
or in pies
with mash and liquor
horrible
Helen said
how could they?
People will eat anything
you replied
turning to gaze
at her horrified face
her eyes magnified
behind her thick lens spectacles
I read somewhere
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poem by Terry Collett
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