5 of 21

Write now Article Tools

I Viewed Them in My Pigtails

Daddy bought two pigs but would not let me name them.
He said he was going to kill them by and by,
And if I got attached to them He knew it would make me cry,
To know one January morning they would have to die.

"They will grow fat and happy, for bacon, chops, and ham" he said
For the winter when times are lean.
He was only trying to feed his family,

For he was not a cruel man or mean.

He kept them in a pen and aw! shucks! how they could squeal.
Mommy said, "Don't worry daughter it isn't pain they feel."
They wallowed in the mud and ate their fattening slop.
They oinked and squealed and snorted and never seemed to stop.

Then one day in the fall I decided to take a peak,
What I thought were small babies was what I aimed to seek.
I went out to the pigpen which was quite a ways away,
And there I watched in pigtails as two big hogs with Saddles played.

I laughed at their curly tails and all the mud and ooze.
I got a little too close to the pen and it squished into my shoes.
They shook their bodies and the mud went flying all over my new dress.
Mommy had made it from the feed-sacks that held their middling mess.

There I stood all sticky in mud up to my knobby knees,
Laughing all the while and as dirty as I could be.
As I stood and viewed the hogs inside their wooden pen,
My hand slipped from the rail and I was in mud up to my chin.

Yes I lay there right beside them them with my pigtails in muddy water.
Yes I viewed them in my pigtails when I knew I shouldn't otter
But I just had to see them once before they went to slaughter
Yes I viewed them in my pigtails and now I'm Daddy's stinky, piggie, daughter.

Learn more about this author, Mary E. Preece.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Poetry: Fat and happy?
We want to hear your view. Write now!