Marcella Wolfe Curve of the Pen It’s little more than the curve of the pen that makes for a humane killing, the slight arc the fence makes keeping cattle safely in line on their journey toward your fork tip. In a curved pen a steer won’t witness the culling of his brother before him; in a sound-proofed chamber he calms before dying. One by one little calves are stunned, while down some dirt road no one knows the name of another goodly farmer kills worms while tending soil planting grain for your daily bread. We fool ourselves into thinking feeding ourselves will be kind. We want that hand closing the pen door silent as the hand of god. We want our own path curved.

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