Taking Pigs to Market, Hong Kong

When the four pigs are let out
their noses sniff the dirt path
outside their pen

one puts its snout
into the wire cage
thrust in front of him
prodded, he enters
finds the far end tapers
to the shape of his snout
squeals in panic

each pig does the same
investigates
discovers for himself
his own panic

only the last pig
before half-way in
fights his way back out
turning
despite blows of a mallet
climbs half over the cage
turns and turns again
into the blows
rather than into the cage

it is his first and last battle
inevitably
his opponents
trick his head in
shove the rest

the black-trousered woman grins
crinkling leathery skin
showing gold teeth

she and the old man
poke a carrying pole
through the space
between the pig's snout
and the end of the cage

they upend the animal
and set it on the scales
a sagging
pale
and hairy mass of flesh
jammed against the wire cage
by its own weight
its squeal an echo
of each
trapped
doomed
and alone

the pig who fought
is first to be carried away
at least not left
propped against the wall
of its own shed
where young, pink-eared descendants
of boars
grow delicate swirls of hair
above their small eyes.