Nepal’s blood drinking festivals

4000 metres above sea level
where the rolling mists do climb
and hang in what can only be
described as the new dawn of time
villagers whose diets are chiefly
sparse lentils and rice
once or twice a year come forth
to drink the blood of Yaks
suffice
to say
a slit is made
in throats of male Yaks
the trade off is
hot blood cupped and swallowed down
a sort of rather mean attack
sometimes Yak’s die
when over bled
and buddhist then can eat the dead
but cannot set out to eat the meat
they cannot kill
but when they spill
if an accidental death then they
can eat the meat or so they say
its a long long climb up to the place
where the male Yak’s are
and so they chase
and catch and slit
and drink and say
they all feel better
when they come away
enriched on the minerals
born of the earth
as vegans mainly
it has some worth
iron rich blood
is supposed to see
the buddhist’s through
adversity