' ' ' ' ' On The Pig's Back(A Birthday Poem For Onelia) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

She scares me
as if she were

a mythical monster

conjured up from some
medevial map

but here
& now

she's only a big old sow

powerful
in her animality.

She lurches towards me
at the clink of a pail

throwing off her children
left right and centre

the stubbron strong ones
still clinging on to her teats

for dear life
...I run screaming

afraid that she will eat me

as if I were a runt.

My uncle all maternal
bottle feeding the litttle baby pig

as if he were
her mummy

& she his baby.

And now the pig pen
crashing open

the old sow now
rampant & rapicious

almost madden with idignation

as Uncle Seanie rides her bareback
like a cowboy.

'Heeehaw! '
he hollers & hoots.

She grunts with shame

& with a sudden squealing
stop...tosses him off

into a deep dark green
liquid pool of ('Shit! ') ...shit!

He comes up laughing
covered in it

like the monster
from the Green Lagoon

only eyes
& teeth

gleam white.

'Come here to me boy
...& give me a hug! '

'Shit! ' I scream
& do a runner

pursued by
an incensed sow

& a laughing
shit covered uncle.

*******

This came from an Irish tanka and grew itself into a story poem. Not the most edifying poem to get on your birthday but...it's the thought that counts! Happy Birthday dearest One! To be...ON THE PIG'S BACK... is an Irish expression to mean one is doing really well for one's self.

A LEITHÉID DE CHAC!

Och! Muc! Cac! M'uncail!
A haghaidh cludaithe le...cac!
Ha! Cráin ag gáire!

'Tabhair dom pog...a mhaicin! '
'Yuck! ' As mo chial le heagla!

WHAT A LOAD OF SHIT!

OH! Pig! Shit! My uncle...!
His face covered with...shit!
Ha! Sow laughing!

'Give me a kiss...me lad! '
'Yuck! ' Me scared shitless!