Hatcher, John Southall

Pig Song

1. Si yo creyera que mi repuesta sería
2. a persona que pudiera hablar con el agricultor,
3. este cerdito nunca más charlaría;
4. pero, porque tu no puedes convencerle de
5. que un cerdo ha hablado contigo,
6. voy a decite unas cosas en confianza.
7.  
8. — Juan Valdez de Santa Toledo

1.  
2. Let us go then, you and I,
3. where the field yields to the sty
4. like a “See Rock City” poster on a stable;
5. let us go through certain half-erected roosts
6. where some ducklings or a goose
7. speaks of sleepless nights in one-perch cheep chicken pens
8. and barnyards swept with sins;
9. roosts that reek with stale fowl smell
10. and birds pell mell
11. that make you want to yell some swelling question…
12. come on, now, ask me, “What is it?”
13. No?… well, let’s take a walk.
14.  
15. In the sty they come and go
16. speaking of the rodeo.
17.  
18. The moist hay odor drifts along the gutters,
19. the green smell that steps up and mutters,
20. licks my back in the corners where it itches,
21. lingers among the trough and sputters,
22. passes through the farmer’s kitchen who,
23. thinking his wife fast asleep at last,
24. reads lewd magazines to escape her bitching.
25.  
26. And indeed there will be time
27. to tell you of the smell that glides along the grass
28. and drifts along the gutters;
29. There will be time, there will be time
30. to make a squeak to greet the squealers I will meet;
31. and time for all the playful things
32. with all the luscious treats to swallow;
33. time for you and time for me,
34. and time yet for a hundred incisions
35. and for a hundred divisions
36. and being served with toast and tea.
37.  
38. In the sty they come and go
39. speaking of the rodeo.
40.  
41. And indeed there will be time
42. to blurt out, “Eat a peach!” or “Eat a pear!”
43. Time to slide into the mud kersplat
44. like falling in a jello vat.
45. (The roosters will say, “My, his legs are getting fat!”)
46.  
47. My double chin, my rounding rump
48. my shoulders bulging in a clump
49. (The ducks will mutter, “But how his belly is getting plump!”)
50. Do I dare
51. Get up from the mud?
52. In a minute there is time
53. a for incisions and divisions to make a ham of stud.
54.  
55. No! I am not a fierce wild boar, nor was meant to be;
56. am an old stud hog, one that will do
57. to swell a sow, start a litter or two,
58. no doubt with an easy tool,
59. deferential, glad to be of use,
60. chubby, stout, ridiculous,
61. full of pounds, but a bit obtuse;
62. at times, indeed, almost obscene —
63. almost, at times, a piggy bank.
64.  
65. I grow round… I grow round…
66. I shall be measured pound for pound.
67.  
68. Shall I venture to the trough, do I dare to stuff with starches?
69. I shall dine on low-cal tubers and go on diet marches.
70. I have heard the farmers talking each to each.
71. I hope they will not come for me.
72. I have seen them riding their large white mares,
73. combing the white-haired mane for the fair
74. where the judges weigh and then compare.
75.  
76. We have lingered in the corners of the pen,
77. amid the mire, slime, and swill strewn through the sty
78. Till human voices “So o o o ey!” and we die.

Pig Thoughts at Noon

1. a vegetarian stroked at noon behind my ears
2. mumbled about my being bred for death (his pun),
3. but his thoughts were elsewhere
4.  
5. among feathers, furs,
6. rare flaming symmetry
7. and outspread wings, not me;
8.  
9. for though my soul dwells beyond swift stallions
10. and above the tree-couched cat
11. I am groomed for termination
12. and no one mourns my passing.
13.  
14. He means well, I suppose —
15. my friend the vegetarian —
16. but when he tries to find comparisons for me
17. his mind wanders to the puma, the cheetah, the jaguar
18. (the sum of whose lifetime thoughts
19. I could formulate on one hoof);
20.  
21. socratically he tries to penetrate
22. my crude surfaces
23. but is stopped by the shadows of things:
24.  
25. he cannot caress my short hair, bulk, snout,
26. cannot remove himself from reflexive imagery —
27. the stuck pig still squeals
28. no pearls are cast before me
29. I am symbol for greed and
30. things remote from godliness
31. forbidden as vile to some
32. but devoured at every part
33. feet, brains, joints, entrails.
34.  
35. So it is that I
36. become each of you
37. and am your metaphor —
38. what you seek as you peek behind the surfaces,
39. for who has sensed the nobility in my pig heart
40. and has caught the glint in my eyes
41. can ponder the beginning of the universe
42. and probe the heart of man.