Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Haemonchus contortus

Haemonchus contortus

I try to live a quiet and a decent kind of life
Not predator nor prey
It's not my style to chain things up or even fence them in
I let them go their way
A rich, abundant banquet is presented at my door
I take just what I need
Using it to do what all the other creatures do:
Live, and grow, and breed

I like to think that I contribute something to my world's
Biodiversity
And in return my world responds, providing for my needs
With generosity
Your livestock grazing out there, placid, in your fields of green
Live a life I might
Why then do you vilify me, hunt me down with poison
Call me "parasite"?


(An original poem by me, inspired in part by David Mackenzie's writing on the subject in his book, Goat Husbandry)