Czech Republic and Switzerland, (contemporary)
The Practical Man
- I.
- When on some February mornings his sturdy frame filled up
- the doorway, hindering the sun from peeking into the pigsty, the animals
- began to stomp with apprehension; unlike us, they could always sense
- their own death lying ahead. Outside in the yard, the unlucky
- one ran around in circles, squealing hammer and tongs while children
- cheered and men grunted, all teeth and spit, playing the game of
- hounds: put down the wooden ladder to block its way out, enclose it
- by prods, then let the chieftain come forward; only he knew how to kill
- a pig with one precise shot between its eyes – an old-school
- slaughter.
- II.
- If in springtime cats around the farmhouse started to reproduce too quickly, he
- with his two calloused hands would grab the kittens by the soft hair behind their
- necks, put the mewling mess into a bucket of cold water and – to Misha the Dog’s
- delight – drown them one by one; through and through, my great grandfather was
- a practical man: after a cock had tried to blind me, those same hands
- cut off its head and then we fed it
- to the dog.
Commended award winner – British Library’s Animal Tales Challenge on Young Poets Network – https://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/
About the Poet:
Denisa Vitova, Czech Republic and Switzerland (contemporary), is a poet and student. She was the overall winner in the 2016 Young Poets Network August Challenge #4, and was commended in the Who is Giselle? poetry challenge. Her poems have also won several other challenges on Young Poets Network, including the Timothy Corsellis Prize 2015, the Animal Tales Challenge, and Helen Mort’s Cape Farewell writing challenge.
Vítová is a dual citizen of the Czech Republic and Switzerland and currently a literature and linguistics student (English and Slavonic studies) at the University of Zurich. Her poem above was a “Commended” award winner in the 2015 British Library’s Animal Tales Challenge on Young Poets Network. So far, her work has been published by The London Magazine, Ambit, Firewords, The Poetry Society UK, The Moth, Acumen and elsewhere. [DES-04/22]
Additional information:
- Denisa Vitova – https://denisavitova.medium.com/
- Denisa Vitova – https://twitter.com/vitovadenisa/