Meat Market
Strange softshell turtles
large and flaccid,
stacked in plastic boxes
next to the sidewalk
on a cold hard butcher shop floor.
Maybe you were
raised on a farm,
where captive born turtles
knew nothing of freedom
fattened for the kill
your every need, supplied.
More likely though
you were trapped this summer,
wrenched from your native watery
the waters you will only know
in your last turtle dreams.
We are not your friends,
our actions do not deceive you.
Even I, empathetic to your plight
will never be trusted.
How frankly you stare,
how brave you seem
in spite of these odds.
How I wished for a moment
I were as brave,
how I wished since that day
I could forget those eyes.
Editorial Comment. — This poem describes the emotional response of coming face-to-face with live softshell turtles being sold in a meat market in Chinatown, San Francisco, California. The commercial trade in turtles for food, medicinal products, and pets continues on a huge scale around the world, and this scene is repeated millions of times (see the article on trade in turtle shell for medicine in Taiwan by Chen et al. in this issue of Chelonian Conservation and Biology [CCB]). The Asian turtle trade has gradually expanded to include Oriental communities around the world, and huge quantities of turtles, both wild and farmed, are harvested for that trade. Originally confined primarily to China, the turtle consumption trade has spread in widening circles of destructive unsustainability through Southeast and South Asia and has also reached the United States, where softshell turtles and other species are harvested in huge quantities and either exported to China or transported to domestic Chinese communities such as Chinatown. Several states have already enacted regulations prohibiting the harvest of wild turtles as a response to this growing threat. Other states, such as Florida, where a massive trade in farmed softshells originates, are currently considering enhanced regulations. In fact, as we go to press, Florida is considering enacting new rules prohibiting commercial harvest of wild turtles—a welcome action stimulated partially by a group of turtle experts, including some of the editorial board members of CCB, who approached the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Governor Charlie Crist and convinced them of the need for tougher regulations to protect wild turtles in Florida. By speaking out and working together, we can all make a difference, and maybe someday we will no longer have to see live turtles waiting for slaughter in the meat markets of the world.
Contributor Notes
Editorial Introduction. — This section is devoted to poetry involving turtles, representing either reprinted previously published or new unpublished material. We encourage our readers to submit poetry or songs for consideration, either their own material or work by other authors. Poems may be submitted to Anders G.J. Rhodin at Chelonian Research Foundation [RhodinCRF@aol.com].
Our desire is to share with our readers the beauty and wonder of turtles as expressed through the art of the poem or song. In the sense that the relationship between man and turtles is multifaceted, so too is turtle poetry. The poems we publish here will reflect that complexity, from poems of pure admiration for the creatures themselves to others reflecting the utilization of turtles and their products. Some poems will reflect man's use of the turtle for sustenance, others will stress man's need to preserve and protect turtles. Some will deal with our emotional interactions with turtles, others will treat turtles light-heartedly or with seeming disrespect, but all will hopefully help us to better understand both the human and the chelonian condition, and remind us that the turtle holds a sacred place in all our hearts.
Copyright © 2005 Michael Christensen.
Published in Christensen, Michael. 2005. Turtle Poems. Lulu Press, pp. 40–41.
Reprinted here with permission of the author.
