Now we are only half human being. We do things with hesitation, we do things with ego. Even when we don’t hesitate, we do things with ego. Yeah, I know I was vegetarian because the God inside us wants it. But then I quit and started to buy, cook, eat meat all the time. The God inside me is buried. And doing what? We knew the climate was too hot and wet for us—two reserved types unless drinking and dancing for one, and drinking and drinking for the other—but we came here anyway to taste and spit out the food with the power of God’s mercy.

Laura Cronk is a poet and essayist who works with writers at The New School in New York. Her street smarts come from Jersey City.

“Vegetarian Poem” was originally published in Street Cred (TLR, 2015)