Labels, slapped across cellophane, covering flesh in the meat aisle, read “half price.” I wonder how a cow or a pig might feel about its body being priced and then half-priced, as though cheapening its life, or its no-longer-life. Would I still be eating meat if I had to cull a life with my bare hands? I watch as an elderly man tries to free a packet from the top shelf. I hand it to him, feeling like an accomplice to a murder. He smiles, shuffles off towards the vegetable aisle, a place where my conscience is quieter. I follow.
FC Malby’s novel, Take Me to the Castle, won The People's Book Awards. She is a contributor to three short-story anthologies and writes poetry fcmalby.com Instagram and X: @fcmalby