on the true ruminants

the pig isn’t & yet its hoof
is cloven how god wants it—
tho be wary the split foot
which draws a butcher in
not knowing the beast to be
monogastric as we speaking are—
why would any god want
our meat many-stomached?
seems arbitrary & yet
to ruminate means to consider
to chew this life into something
more digestible. a cow might
spend half its living just ruminating.
it’s true, you are what what
you eat eats & how. how
many methods are there
of keeping the body clean?
that we experience joy
besides unspeakable suffering
must pass through the rumen,
reticulum, omasum, &
abomasum before being
absorbed by the bloodstream.
let us praise the pig instead
for saving its own damned self
from the executioner simply
by swallowing everything at once
once & for all. out in the fields
the true ruminants are lowing
attempting to make sense
of the grasses while the schochet
sharpens his blade & turns
his attention at last toward
the reader.