(Mangalica swine--Hungarian breed)
Swine are all over the news today. Poor pigs! Blamed now for a pandemic that may or may not occur. Swine are my favorite farm animals. I raised them as a girl and won Grand Champion blue ribbons for them. Here's a poem from my forthcoming (I hope) book, Descent, that takes on the now timely topic of swine. But take a look at that Hungarian swine above. Isn't he/she gorgeous? The next time I go to Hungary I must seek this breed out. I want to scratch a Mangalica's ears.
Wallow
Too close by day, my grandfather’s hogs wallowed.
By night their stink hovered,
hanging over the furrows and salt licks.
Slathered in wallow-mud,
swine sauntered out to the water-trough
slurping it up, slime and all. I knew sows
could be mean, but to think of a pig eating
somebody, that seemed medieval. That pig
could be strung up for homicide once,
having stood trial. No counsel could save him.
Or her. Poor pigs, maligned for their sins.
Is there anything that can be loved
in a pig without risking derision? You look
like the sort of girl who eats the fat
on a pork chop, a frat boy once jeered
at a friend who’d been raised on a farm.
She’d told him she loved her pigs’ noses,
undulating like pink slimy flowers
you see underwater. I wondered,
as she wept with shame and from too much
spiked punch, did pigs think we stank,
the lot of us sniffing each other, the air rank
with animal, no matter the species?
by KSB
(First published The Raleigh News-Observer)
6 comments:
I too am a fan of pigs and find them quite attractive in their own piggy way. But this Hungarian pig -- wowzer! THAT is some pig!
The poem is lovely -- sweet and sad.
Vicki, this really is a wowser pig. And I'm glad you liked the poem, too. Pigs have found their way into quite a few of my poems...snuffle, snuffle, rooting around in all that good rich mud from the past.
I love it! I admire anyone who writes about pigs in such a loving way. Having been raised on a south GA farm, I know something about pigs, too.
Although I hated the smell and the dirtiness of the pigs on the farm, I did enjoy watching them. Found them quite fascinating actually, especially the little ones.
That is, indeed, some pig! Most people don't know that pigs a very intelligent and if given a choice, will be quite clean. They usually don't get living quarters that help. I loved to watch the piglets when I was a kid.
So glad to find pig-fans out there! They make good pets, too, or so folks say. I wouldn't mind my own piglet, but my husband is not crazy about the idea. Jane, yes, they are very intelligent. We had a pig named Yorkie (Yorkshire) that we rode. He was great fun--let us scratch and brush him. Then he was stolen one night. So sad.
Oh, Lawdy! I am SUCH a fan of yours! I'm thrilled to see that you have a blog. This poem is awesome. I also love "Coastal Plain."
I'm just another poet/writer who has moved back home, and I'm looking for resources, people, events. It looks like you have a world of information on this site. The poetry is my favorite part, of course. I will check out your links, too. Thank you!
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