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  • The Swine
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The Swine

Alan Jackson

The swine hangs on,
The swine hangs on to power,
The townsfolk mutter round the tower:

‘Roast him, toast him,
Thin his blood.
Try fire first,
Then try flood.

Char the timbers,
Crack the stone.
Make him marrow
In a splintered bone.

Then he’ll tumble,
Our hot meat.
Then we hack him.
Then we eat.’


Alan Jackson

from Salutations: Collected Poems 1960-1989 (Edinburgh: Polygon, 1990)

Reprinted by permission of the author.

Tags:

cannibalism meat politics power and control society violence
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Alan Jacksonb.1938

Alan Jackson is a Scottish poet and writer who established influential poetry readings at the Edinburgh Festival in the 1960s.
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