Brooks, David

Australia (b. 1953)

The Pig

  1. Who would write of a pig
  2. and what would a pig know of Spirit?
  3.  
  4. Who would think that the soul of a pig,
  5. as it leaves the pig’s body,
  6. would create the slightest disturbance in air?
  7.  
  8. What would a pig know of agony?
  9.  
  10. What would a pig know of death?
  11.  
  12. The screaming of a pig
  13. that shreds the air above a village
  14. is no more than the sound
  15. a heavy metal table makes
  16. as it is dragged across stone.
  17.  
  18. The motionlessness
  19. of a mother in a sow stall
  20. is no more than a pig at rest
  21.  
  22. the groaning
  23. only the closing of a metal door
  24. far off inside her.

© David Brooks. The Best Australian Poems 2016 edited by Saran Holland-Batt. Black Inc., (an imprint of Schwartz Publishing Pty Ltd). Carlton, Victoria, Australia (2016).

About the Poet:

David Gordon Brooks (b. 1953) is an Australian poet, novelist and essayist. He graduated from the Australian National University in 1974 and completed his Ph.D from the University of Toronto in 1981.

Brooks has taught at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Canberra, the University of Western Australia in Perth, is now an Associate Professor of English at the University of Sydney. There, he lectures in Australian literature, poetics and creative writing.

Two full-length collections Brooks’ poetry have been published, as well as three collections of short fiction and a novel, along with a collection of essays on literature and excess and a short work of ekphrasis on the paintings of Balthus. [DES-12/16]

Additional information:

  • Brooks also co-edits Australia’s oldest literary journal, Southerly, with Elizabeth McMahon.