United Kingdom, (b. 1964)
Long Pig
- We eat the flesh only in wartime, when enraged,
- and in a few legal instances. Theft. Treason.
- Adultery. When the elders deem fit, revenge.
- When a captured prisoner cannot pay ransom
- in coin or woman or pig. And we find nothing
- animates missionaries like being eaten.
- When we introduce you to the village elders,
- you men, with your degrees from Oxford or Eton,
- must squat at the far end of the hut from our king
- due to your woeful lack of pigs. Still, be at ease.
- But when our women gather salt, and limes, and rice,
- hanging coconuts like sucked skulls from the palm trees,
- it might be prudent to invoke the Lord’s Prayer twice,
- or whatever prayer, to whatever God you please.
About the Poet:
Hilary Menos, United Kingdom, (b. 1964), is a poet, journalist, food reviewer, arts critic, organic farmer, script overseer and dramaturge. Menos read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Wadham College, Oxford. She took a diploma in Graphic Origination and Reproduction and a postgraduate diploma in Journalism, both at the London College of Printing. She has had two poetry collections published by Seren Books, Berg (2009), which won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2010, and Red Devon (2013).
Menos’ first pamphlet, Extra Maths (2004), was a winner of The Poetry Business Book and Pamphlet Competition 2004/05. Her second pamphlet, Wheelbarrow Farm (2010), was a winner of the Templar Poetry Pamphlet and Collection Competition 2010. [DES-01/22]
Additional information:
- Hilary Menos – http://hilarymenos.co.uk/
- Hilary Menos is the editor at: The Friday Poem