Turner, Brian

New Zealand, (b. 1944)

Pig

  1. He was a big pig,
  2. ugly to some,
  3. with a rough hide
  4. and thick bristles.
  5. When it was time
  6. to slaughter him
  7. you shot him
  8. in the head
  9. and he slumped
  10. on the spot, thud.
  11. Two of you
  12. couldn’t move him
  13. so you hung
  14. a block and tackle
  15. from a tree,
  16. stuck a hook
  17. under his jaw
  18. and hauled him up.
  19. You had to use
  20. your 4-wheel drive
  21. Toyota to lift him,
  22. he was such a weight.
  23. You gutted and hosed
  24. him out and left him
  25. hanging there all night.
  26.  
  27. I saw him swinging
  28. slowly in the wind,
  29. a stain in the dark,
  30. heavy as grief.

 Brian Turner. Beyond. Dunedin, NZ: McIndoe Publishers (1992).

A Good Keen Man


What is it that a donkey sees in a man?
    — Paul Durcan

  1.  
  2. I am grubbing the bank, clearing
  3. snarls of grass, buttercup, dock
  4. and a few thistles
  5. that feign death, Roots like pasta
  6.  
  7. twine in the earth that’s clagged
  8. on my boots, and further
  9. roots me here. Bernie the ram
  10. leans on the fence, seeks food
  11.  
  12. and across the drive three pigs
  13. squeal, piqued insatiables.
  14. They trit-trot back
  15. And forth, irascible little NCOs.
  16.  
  17. But what is it that a ram
  18. sees in a man
  19. that goes unnoticed in him?
  20. What is it that pigs
  21.  
  22. want from a man that he hasn’t
  23. excreted time and again?
  24. And what is it that a man
  25. sees in a pig’s eye, sniffs
  26.  
  27. with his snout, that he hasn’t
  28. seen raised behind his back
  29. or smelled in latrines
  30. everywhere? The rain stinks of urine,
  31.  
  32. semen, shit and lanolin – the pigs
  33. pong less, but pong
  34. redoubtedly. They don’t know
  35. that I would eat them too
  36.  
  37. if need be, that grubs
  38. will have us all, if fire
  39. doesn’t, leaving but a snatched,
  40. queasy whiff upon the air.

 Brian Turner. Beyond. Dunedin, NZ: McIndoe Publishers (1992).

About the Poet:

Brian Turner, New Zealand, (b. 1944), is a poet, essayist, biographer and editor. He is also a critic in his own right, a playwright, art critic, environmentalist commentator and television writer.

An outdoorsman, a mountaineer, a national representative hockey player, a keen cricketer, and an avid senior road cyclist, Turner has also made a unique career in New Zealand letters as a celebrated sports journalist and author of a standard trout fishing guide. As one of New Zealand’s most significant writers on landscape, environmentalism and sport, Turner brings a fresh perspective to nature poetry.

Turner was appointed as the fourth Te Mata Estate New Zealand Poet Laureate in 2003. His work is frequently anthologized in collections of poetry and literary sports writing. He has published numerous poetry collections, as well as works of non-fiction. [DES-04/18]

Additional information: