My mother grew up on a farm during a part of her childhood, and then had to learn that animals were slaughtered and eaten. She told me that they used to eat the neighbour’s rabbits and the neighbour would do the opposite. My grandmother kept a goose that she grew very attached to, but came early November and we celebrate the eve of Marten, by having a dinner of goose. My grandfather really loved to eat goose, and wanted his goose on the evening of November 10th. My mother said that this was very hard on my grandmother.
before first snow
tears filling her eyes
goose for dinner
Woman with goose by Paula Modersohn-Becker
Linked to Carpe Diem
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September 25, 2013
Björn Rudbergs writings 
I love this story and the fact that they ate the neighbor’s animals. I am a vegetarian and this is part of the reason.
yes indeed… but my mother had to wear a rabbit’s fur coat (this was during the war).
Oh my…I want to hug her. And the goose.
Ah… yes goose can apparently be really nice when you have them close.
I can’t imagine having to cook it. We humans are strange creatures.
You mean close enough to eat? 😉
Tin Drums and Geese
😀
What a story Bjorn. So sad, but in those times it was very common … my father in law has pigeons and sometimes, as I maybelieve my wife, they had them on a regular base for dinner.
Very good respons on our prompt for today.
Many thanks .. yes it’s a story I recall being told…
awww…that is so sad. 😦 I would not want anyone in this world to eat an animal that I grew so close to. It would break my heart a lot.
A very sad haibun… 😦
Three Dens with Geese
It’s hard to slaughter your favorite pets.
too often I befriended the chickens – off with their heads
what a poignant haiku Bjorn
A terrific haibun, Bjorn! Perfect, worthy of Basho I think. 🙂
But yes, a sad story. I am sorry for your mother experiencing that. I could tell similar stories, but I will not. Just to say, in a way, though, I find that experience less terrifying and sad than the way we so often eat meat now, disassociating it from the reality of the animal’s life, the animal dying for us to eat, the killing, the blood. The reality. Instead now it’s some sterile item on a shelf at a store, usually. That is sad in its own way too.
Oh how heartbreaking…and captured so well in your haiku.
This is always so difficult
I know if I had ‘livestock’, they would all be my pets…
it is hard – better just to see them wrapped up on store shelves. really loved your haiku offering.
A topic that doesn’t come up too often. What a lovely story.