Let’s talk about frog dissections

“To a Seventh-Grade Heart Breaker”
A new poem by 2014 SAVE THE FROGS! Poetry Contest Grand Prize Winner Kiana Shurkin

You run the scalpel over my chest
Watch in wonder as my heartbeats slow, then cease
Then you set my heart aside
And proceed to disassemble me
Piece by tiny piece

Because the teachers told you
That your life’s worth more than mine
And you will get an F
If you don’t perform this crime

Because you are too curious
And CGI* won’t do
Nor a model of a frog
To substitute for true

Because to change is hard
And often very slow
And this is how it’s always done
Because my kind seems low

No matter that I sing at night
Or eat the bugs that bite
No matter that I matter, too
And that this isn’t right

You run the scalpel over my chest
Watch in wonder as my heartbeats slow, then cease
Then you set my heart aside
And proceed to disassemble me
Piece by tiny piece.

*CGI- short for “computer generated imagery”. Some schools use computer software to replace live frog dissections with videos and interactive animations from which students can learn without harming any real creatures.

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