Friday, February 15, 2013
Souvankham Thammavongsa
AT THE FARM
I was sitting in the car counting the black flies
They had come in through the open window
There were four
One was on the rearview mirror
The other three were perched on my left hand
I heard a gunshot by the barn and thought nothing of it
We were at a farm
I saw a cow come charging forward with half its head gone
A man with an axe came running behind it
He hit it once
Once he hit it
And it fell to the ground
Everything was eaten
Its eye appeared in a soup that night
Everything was accounted for
Souvankham Thammavongsa won the 2004 ReLit prize for her first poetry book, Small Arguments. Her new book will be released in September 2013.
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Your flies like a foreshadowing in a movie. Your cow half shot completes the film so perfectly.
ReplyDeleteI was a child In Italy in 1961 and saw a pig roped on a tree and pretty much meet the same ending. Everything was accounted for as you say in so factual a counterpoint. You've given me a moment I had forgotten back and to realize how it shaped me not to be afraid of life. Bravo
Frank