"A letter from Mother Earth"

She wrote to me today...
"Have you ever felt
like a piece of meat on display
in a meat market?
Just above the reach of hungry dogs
so close that
you can feel the heat of their bark
the stench of their breath?

All they want is a piece...
a nice chunk of your soul

Have you ever felt
like a piece of meat
being undressed and fucked
with one single degrading look?
Being raped by every version of imaginable
and unimaginable nasty being?
Being raped of your dignity,
respect- your worth, your wealth?

Left crippled and barren
with a womb that is capable
of only giving birth to stillborns

...All that is left is the carcass
of what once used to be my soul"

-Shirley Gadde.