Mockler, Kathryn

Canada, (b. 1971)

Malice

  1. The pot-bellied pigs were racing
  2. hard—only they weren’t pigs
  3. in the animal sense, they were
  4. cops—really really large cops
  5. who were racing bottle caps on
  6. the backs of stray dogs.
  7.  
  8. They knew it was a strange
  9. hobby but rarely talked about
  10. it because to draw too much
  11. attention to what they were
  12. doing would take all the fun out
  13. of it—like a magician revealing
  14. to his audience the magic
  15. behind all of his tricks.
  16.  
  17. One of the pot-bellied pigs
  18. brought a sad friend with him
  19. to watch the races. After five
  20. hours, the sad friend got bored
  21. and twitchy and said—what
  22. about all the crime we have to
  23. stop—you know the robbers,
  24. the thugs, and the stockbroker
  25. scammers. And we have to
  26. help the victims—you know,
  27. the people who get their bikes
  28. stolen. We can’t forget about
  29. them.
  30.  
  31. Sweating and out of breath and
  32. embarrassed for his sad friend,
  33. the pot-bellied pig grabbed him
  34. by both wrists and squeezed
  35. hard. No, he said with his teeth
  36. clenched, we don’t have to do
  37. any of that. Our job is to finish
  38. this race.

© Kathryn Mockler. published in: Lemon Hound. Vol. 1, September 21, 2012.

About the Poet:

Kathryn Mockler (b. 1971) is a Canadian poet, writer, filmmaker, screenwriter and video artist. Mockler received her MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and her BA in Honours English and Creative Writing from Concordia University.

She is the author of the poetry books The Saddest Place on Earth (2012) and Onion Man (2011). Mockler has been published most recently in Lemon Hound, Pilot Pocket Books, Descant, The Windsor Review, The Capilano Reivew and Joyland.

Mockler teaches creative writing and screenwriting for the Department of English and Writing Studies at the University of Western Ontario. Currently, she is also the Toronto editor of Joyland, a hub for short fiction and the publisher and co-founder/co-editor of the online literary and arts journal The Rusty Toque. [DES-07/14]

Additional information:

  • Kathryn Mockler
  • The Rusty Toque – an online literary and arts journal from Ontario, Canada. They reach out to the literary and art communities nationally and internationally and strive to publish diverse, innovative literary writing, reviews, and visual art from Canada and around the world.
  • Joyland – a literary magazine that selects fiction and essays regionally. The editors work with stories and excerpts by authors connected to locales across North America.
  • Lemon Hound – an online bi-monthly literary journal based at the English Department of Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.

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