Morton, Karla K.

Summer of the Pig

1. One morning they appeared—
2. tiny pink bodies,
3. curling ribbons of tail,
4.  
5. hungry from the start;
6. the soft grunts and flat snouts
7. rooting for teats
8. on the belly of that old tired sow.
9.  
10. Quick minded,
11. in three days they learned to sit,
12. to stay, to come,
13. as I leveled troughs
14. sweetened with scraped scraps from our plates.
15.  
16. And I, the young shepherd of these squealing pink shoats,
17. following my voice like lambs.
18.  
19. Void of sweat glands,
20. they reveled in their daily bucket baths—
21. holding still and smiling as I rubbed red clay
22. off their coarse coconut bodies,
23. and wrapped them in frayed patterned towels,
24.  
25. losing two to suffocation
26. beneath the sow refusing to get up,
27. though I hollered, shoved;
28. viced her tail with pliers.
29.  
30. They were mine all summer,
31. and we sang and squealed and hiked
32. those 20 acres, staff in hand
33. for three months,
34. 30 legs;
35. 7 snouts;
36. one nose,
37.  
38. till September and school,
39. when they grew into sows and hogs,
40. turning triad ears down
41. to the ancient whispers of the earth,
42.  
43. with no memory of my voice
44. when I returned
45. and called each by name.
46.  
47. The Summer of the Pig
48. plowed under like the dried stalks
49. of sweet corn,
50. and bare rooted clay.
51.  
52. Then came the winter,
53. and a freezer full of pork,
54. white paper pounds
55. of bacon and tenderloin,
56.  
57. Sunday night treats
58. of sausage wrapped in pancakes;
59.  
60. when I walked the flats without song,
61. the tap of my staff keeping time,
62. the old tired sow
63. alone and pregnant
64. in her pen.