Gunesekera, Romesh

Pigs

1. They brought a live pig
2. for an Independence Day feast.
3. I was too young to be
4.  
5. in on the brainstorm
6. that imported this idea
7. into our unorthodox home.
8.  
9. The slaughterer was professional
10. but the squeals of the animal
11. lasted all day. Our household
12.  
13. of helpers and helped
14. expressed doubts: “the blade
15. is blunt …”
16.  
17. ” … pig has no throat.”
18. Our back yard had never seen
19. anything quite like it.
20.  
21. The grey flesh
22. like a map of Europe
23. was brushed with a burning torch.
24.  
25. At dinner the pig’s head
26. with an apple in its mouth
27. grinned from a silver tray.
28.  
29. *  *  *
30.  
31. In London the pigs came
32. on metal hooks, ready-
33. gutted, from an abattoir.
34.  
35. My job was to carry
36. a hundred-dead-weight
37. into a metropolitan store.
38.  
39. I quickly learned the art:
40. chucking English carcases
41. off my back.