Pogue, Danny

The Philosophy of Pig Castration

1.  
2. My first impression was that your hands were much larger
3. than your ideas. I thought,
4. this giant’s world much too small for me.
5. How could anyone find meaning in the shape
6. of a Holstein cow, or philosophy in the castration of pigs.
7.  
8. Surely a mind such as mine was meant to soar, unscathed
9. by mangled hogs, musty barn dust and mastitis.
10. Yes, my mind was meant to soar, to search for shape
11. in some shapeless something somewhere out there in that exotic marvelous
12. universe. One day soon, I would find it, analyze, anatomize
13. and anthologize it, into a neat cosmic cube philosophy
14. that everyone could understand.
15.  
16. Thirty years later, just yesterday, while watching your straining
17. nephews, each one the size of a pro-linebacker shoulder you
18. through an early may morning, I recognized my error.
19. In that instant, I found meaning in the shape of your casket,
20. and understood with perfect clarity the philosophy of pig castration.