Canada, (b. 1957)
THE PIGS
- Maybe it was the way we became animals.
- The rusty smell of turning meat on the grill,
- the private urges of the bedroom, memory,
- the summer heat and the women arriving
- in his truck, night after night. The women
- arriving with pink purses, thinking they were safe
- from the street. And the pigs sleeping,
- making those little noises that pigs make
- when they sleep. Their velvet ears the size
- of a man’s hands. And what they can do.
- The hands of one man.
- Or maybe it was the season. Fall coming on
- and that heavy light dragging across the land.
- The details deepened the day.
- We couldn’t talk because there is no justice
- when you know nothing is as it seems, nothing the same.
- Remembering how as a teenager I fed pigs, an age
- when the boys in big trucks talked about porking
- the girls, and I loved their eyes. I loved the soft light
- of the pigs’ eyes when they looked up
- from the trough. They trusted me to feed them,
- would eat anything: fermenting grain, bones
- cabbage heads. Aren’t we all born
- into a trust with this world? And with what measure
- and certitude do we get into sorrow’s truck and ride.
About the Poet:
Rosemary Griebel (b. 1957), is a Canadian poet and librarian. Griebel majored in Canadian literature at Simon Fraser University, received a Master’s in English at King’s College in London, and a Master’s in Library Science from the University of British Columbia.
Her current work as Manager, Special Projects at the Calgary Public Library allows her to support the local literary community and foster a love of words and ideas within the city. She currently serves on the Board of the Writer’s Guild of Alberta and is a former Board member of the Markin Flanagan Distinguished Writers Program.
Rosemary’s poems have been published on CBC’s radio program, Alberta Anthology, in national journals and literary anthologies, in the Alberta Transit’s “Poetry in Motion” series, and in chapbooks by Leaf Press. Her work is included in The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2010, edited by Lorna Crozier. Yes (2010) is her first book of poems. [DES-08/14]
Additional information:
- Yes by Rosemary Griebel from Frontenac House
- A 2012 article on Griebel from the Calgary Herald
- Calgary Public Library