Wendell Berry

For the Hog Killing

  • Let them stand still for the bullet, and stare the shooter in the
  • eye,
  • let them die while the sound of the shot is in the air, let them die
  • as they fall,
  • let the jugular blood spring hot to the knife, let its freshet be full,
  • let this day begin again the change of hogs into people, not the
  • other way around,
  • for today we celebrate again our lives' wedding with the world,
  • for by our hunger, by this provisioning, we renew the bond.
© Wendell Berry
Collected Poems, 1957-1982. North Point Press, San Francisco, 1985.
Originally published in A Part, 1980.