Gedicht
Michael Hartnett
Pigkilling
Pigkilling
Pigkilling
Like a knife cutting a knifehis last plea for life
echoes joyfully in Camas.
An egg floats
like a navel
in the pickling-barrel;
before he sinks,
his smiling head
sees a delicate girl
up to her elbows
in a tub of blood
while the avalanche
of his offal steams
among the snapping dogs
and mud
and porksteaks
coil in basins
like bright snakes
and buckets of boiling water hiss
to soften his bristles
for the blade.
I kick his golden bladder
in the air.
It lands like a moon
among the damsons.
Like a knife cutting a knife
his last plea for life
echoes joyfully in Camas.
© 1975, The Estate of Michael Hartnett
From: Collected Poems
Publisher: The Gallery Press, Oldcastle
From: Collected Poems
Publisher: The Gallery Press, Oldcastle
Camas: a townland five miles south of Newcastle West in County Limerick where I spent most of my childhood.
Gedichten
Gedichten van Michael Hartnett
Close
Pigkilling
Like a knife cutting a knifehis last plea for life
echoes joyfully in Camas.
An egg floats
like a navel
in the pickling-barrel;
before he sinks,
his smiling head
sees a delicate girl
up to her elbows
in a tub of blood
while the avalanche
of his offal steams
among the snapping dogs
and mud
and porksteaks
coil in basins
like bright snakes
and buckets of boiling water hiss
to soften his bristles
for the blade.
I kick his golden bladder
in the air.
It lands like a moon
among the damsons.
Like a knife cutting a knife
his last plea for life
echoes joyfully in Camas.
From: Collected Poems
Camas: a townland five miles south of Newcastle West in County Limerick where I spent most of my childhood.
Pigkilling
Sponsors
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère