Tuesday Morning, Loading Pigs
The worse goddam job of all
sez John pushing a thick slat
in front of the posts
behind the sow in the loading chute
so when she balked and backed up
she couldn't turn and get away
I never seen a sow or a hog load easy
some boars will
mebbe it's because they got balls
or something I don't know
but I seen them do it
that Brown feller the FFA
he's got this boar he just opens the trailer door
he comes and gets in
course he mebbe knows what
he's being loaded up for
it was this Ivie boy back home
the best I ever seen for loading
he wasn't scared of nothing
he'd get right in and shove them up
he put sixteen top hogs
in the back of a Studebaker pickup
by hisself I seen it
when he was a boy he opened up
the tank on the tractor
smelling gas
made his brains go soft they sed
he failed fifth grade
but it wasn't his fault
he could load up hogs
I always had to at home
cause I was the youngest
I sed then it was two things
I wouldn't do when I grown up
warsh no dishes or load up hogs
by god they can set in the sink
a month before I'll warsh them
a man's got to have a principle
he can live by is what I say
now you grab her ears and pull
I'll push from back here
we'll get that sonabitch in the truck.
by David Lee, Poetry 180-112
Well, somebody has to call out to David Lee and this well written poem. It's a little bit of perfection,
ReplyDeletebeautifully controlled, exquisite, nearly, in its lingo. As a sometime, highly skilled loader of pigs, I praise
this man's accomplishment.
Correction: line in 1st stanza(?) should be "he's got this boar..." Not "he's got this board". At least according to version published in the book Poetry 180. Thanks whoever posted this, and to David Lee. Beautiful capture of a time and place.
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