Austin, Lana

The Pig

1. Now, you’d think
2. if he had enough sense
3. to get up there,
4. he’d have enough sense
5. to get back down.
6. The archived photograph
7. deifies him enough to give him
8. the benefit of the doubt,
9. standing up there in 1957
10. on that filing cabinet God-like.
11. Reminds me of the Stonewall statue,
12. the pig astride a filing cabinet
13. and Jackson on his horse, both
14. of them with muscles tight
15. and if they were dogs,
16. their hackles would be up.
17. He must’ve used the office chair
18. that was found floating
19. around the room
20. to get to his metal refuge.
21. And that must’ve been why
22. he couldn’t get down.
23. Those witch-possessed
24. Hazard, Kentucky waters
25. rose so much that even something
26. fairly big like an office chair
27. could just float away.
28. Huge things could drift
29. around, too, like cars. We’re not
30. talking about today’s tiny
31. Ford Fiestas. We mean behemoth
32. gas-guzzlers with testosterone-infused
33. names like Thunderbird,
34. emasculated, bobbing
35. around in the flood
36. as if they were a little boy’s toy
37. boats in the bathtub.
38. Whatever you do,
39. don’t call the pig cute.