His prisoners to seek,
Comes strolling down the dingy halls,
That, nauseating, reek.
Their eyes reveal such grievous hurt.
Infection crusts each tear.
Corrosive burns are all they know,
Save tormentors they fear.
Now, here is a sedated one—
Electrodes watch his brain.
No drugs will he receive for his
Excruciating pain.
Experimental surgeries
For those who need them not,
But who cares should they live or die?
They're all just left to rot.
These needles inject certain death—
The cancers men abhor—
So maybe victims can be forced
To outlive those before.
What were the crimes that brought them here
To clasp these metal bars
With hands that bleed in ill-repair
And stiffen with their scars?
These countless, captive creatures lie
So brutalized and weak.
They cannot really save themselves,
Since they can't even speak.
So history has taught us: do
Because you simply can.
But why would you test man's best friends
To see what works for man?
I wrote this ballad for my Senior English class. If you couldn't tell, it is an anti-animal testing poem. When My teacher read it, he said that he thought it was about a WWII concentration camp until the last 2 lines. Ballads are supposed to have twist endings, and my teacher said that he was so surprised by the ending that he actually jumped out of his chair! Needless to say, I got a perfect score on the poem.
