India spiritual so they say but not when dealing with calves

The ashrams and the spiritual
flock to the place on earth
known as India where guru’s
really feel their worth
but look first out into the streets
onto the trucks that ply
their weary way through myriads
of the poor and you will know why
I cite this for your scrutiny
and how a Nation does treat
its animals especially
those it will not eat
in India’s case the holy cow
and its babies we call the calves
are loaded up like sacks of wood
clearly each now starves
any loving relationship
with their mothers for they pine
with every cause there ever was
for their sun just didn’t shine

in India the cow is said to be
a holy soul
but how many calves now end up
as one of the tragic toll
life for them is horrific
the thoughtlessness is rank
hear them lowing
hear them sighing
and its all about the Bank

They are seen just for their leather
its really how to screw
suddenly their holiness
is lost in what some do
babies being sacrificed
where are the guru’s now
when rupees can be so amassed
the merchants they know how

shoes and boots and fine coats
the skin of these sad calves
so they get a price of sorts
but the merchant men he starves
those with cows to barter
and so they need to load
many calves tied up and thrown
on the truck to ply the road

topsy turvy on top of each other
squashed some upside down
over the dusty uneven roads
and far out of the town
the journey is unspeakable
its that last journey alone
its hellish but the destination
if they had ever known

is sinful to the base extreme
for there they will meet their end
whatever was their frantic dream
it quickly does descend
reality is nightmarish
the squalor and the pain
of a hammer smashed down on your head
again and again and again
then a rusty knife is drawn
across your throat just like a saw
imagine the unbelievable
and then imagine more

the agony these babies feel
there are no words to tell
except I don’t wear leather
and respect their life of hell
what man does to his charges
to earn the odd rupee
proves to me that India
had better bloody see
spiritual not any more
not ever really, they
are as backward when it come to it
as calling night time day

when you see them
when you hear them
if you saw them before they died
now they were really spiritual
a calmness personified
and these so called fucking guru’s
could learn a whole lot more
from being kind to their animals
not the debacle that I saw

not the torture of the innocent
the unkindness that was there
seriously the Indians
can sit cross legged there
and pray all day and night
as far as I am now concerned
and then rough handle baby cows
showing us how much they have learned
and clearly it is surface stuff
mostly its for show
money is their god in fact
but the calves themselves do glow
with a purity
with a softness
with a generous regard
what we must do is help them
not leave this world as scarred

stop buying any leather
the cheaper stuff in stores
for it represents a baby
and a baby that adores
life
its so inquisitive
its learning and its sweet
but the skin that you call leather
is now upon your feet
you walk on that cute baby
who gave its life to you
it suffered and its tears
are yours
and those tears will accrue