The tree of liberty

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. -Thomas Jefferson

1. Sometimes a fatted pig will wander off from the pen and find his way to the pond on the edge of the property.  If it’s dark or foggy, he may fall in and sink to the bottom.  Only later when his carcass has filled with methane and mucous will he float to the surface.  You’ll know he’s been in the water for a while when you see the bloat, the blisters oozing, and the skin sloughing off in large sheets.  Don’t go there.  It might reflect poorly on you.

 

2. Ok.  So you didn’t listen.  You went ahead and fetched a stick and poked.   And you were taken aback by just  how easily it slid through his tissues, like the time when that pigeon alighted on your hand, and you were startled by how it weighed almost nothing at all.  So to see what might come of it, you wiggled the stick, and suddenly what was left of the liver and kidneys popped up onto the surface and spit a stream of fluid into your mouth. They drifted towards you and away again, like your lost toy sailboat, the one that got off the string and floated down the rapids in Lucerne.  Over the falls it went, under the covered bridge, and that was the end.

 

3. Of course you still eat blood sausage.  Why wouldn't you?  The texture is rubbery but the taste is well ….. like blood....so metallic on your tongue.   But this blood will not wash away your sins.  It’s more like Pepsi Cola, or maybe Mountain Dew.

 

Reviews

[AYVID N]

Perhaps, poke at your own risk. There is of course liberty to poke. It's something akin to throwing a stone on s**t and having some of it return spatter on our face. Yet sometimes, it just can't be avoided. I simply enjoyed reading this poem and letting the words and images sink into me and throw up their own reflections and it was so good.

[MoriartyMesa]

Sometimes a person feel's something when they read something, This was more like a heavy swing with a baseball bat. Point by point you laid everything out, Mel Brooks would love this if you tagged him.

[Eilis]

I think a bit of poking at tradition is a healthy thing. I like that you have begun your poemish with a quote. To me this is significant because in these times we are in it is quite common to offer short bits of old ideas as proof of something or other. If it’s said by Thomas Jefferson, all the better. I have seen some parodies where Abraham Lincoln is misquoted as talking about the internet or some such nonsense. It is so interesting where language has taken us. We aren’t actually collectively deep readers as a rule these days but we do love to build an argument from a good quote. The internet does not require context, just passion. I read your usage of the quote as a parody or irony of sorts. Marilynne Robinson taught me a lot about the value of understanding the source of information and not accepting things secondhand. I felt some of that here.

We poke the pig and wonder what will happen. Often the result is not as grand as one may expect but not expected either. Things slip away whether we poke them or not. Sometimes the result is just more messy and public than it might otherwise have been. I think we lack fundamental understanding about many things. There are simple things like the process of decay that have been visible and accessible since time immemorial but we are still unfamiliar with them. But we are bound to encounter them sooner or later. To me your poem says they will happen with or without us. Liberty decays because the lofty ideals of men can’t hold up to our baser nature. Thomas Jefferson himself was a man of contradictions and seemingly unaware of the incompatibility of his ideas beside his actions. Do we try anyway? Of course we do. We poke the pig and stand there soaked in things we maybe only partially understand. But this is our nature too. I enjoy thinking about these ideas you share. Not always sure if I’m anywhere near the intention.

[SkinlessFrank]

It’s rewarding to have your reflections on this. Your thoughts do hit upon what I muse about when thinking of this word. Liberty is a concept foreign to the biological world. We might imagine that a flock of birds or colony of ants knows nothing of this thing; they just do what they do. It’s a human ideal, but beyond the words come our base impulses, and I wonder what we do know about. The people “in charge” of making things “better” are always poking and prodding, coining new phrases and buzz words. They then stand back to admire their work and praise each other. Your comments have helped me think more deeply about what was going through my mind when I wrote this. I love this part of reading one another’s work.

[Beccy]

I think that perhaps the tree of liberty might be better refreshed by inviting the world's 'leaders' and their cohorts, (I refer to those with their corporate snouts in the trough,) to be the first to man the front lines.

Peace, and thus liberty for all, is sure to follow tout de suite.

A fascinating and quite uniquely fashioned poem.

Beccy.

[. serah .]

-- i'm preoccupied with the transition from my own past (controlled by a tyrant) to the present moment (brimming with liberty), so i'm reading this post through my prism... -- it reminds me of how we sometimes ignore all warnings and take the worst decision of our lives... and later... we even consume what's left... maybe even relish parts of it... -- but the business of relishing what's left doesn't take care of our blunders... -- that's an entirely different process of deconstruction and reconstruction... -- i really like how powerfully vivid this piece is...

[...]

I'm glad I can't smell these anatomical prose displays of yours, though I'm feeling the disgust just the same.
Some real substance you got here, SF. I almost feel bad for laughing, but I can't help myself :)

[IanLampkin]

I love this, it reminds me so much of how curious we all are as children on a farm, learning of life and death.

[m.s.early]

Oh my. Childhood memories on the farm... learning the basics of life and death. How all comes from the ground, returns in one manner or another, and the curiosity of it all. Of course we poke it, touch it if no one is looking. Ha! Then eat the thing!

There was no part of a pig that didn't get used other than the squeal!

[dukovan]

I'm tying in this biblical idea of being reincarnated/resurrected into a pig.
or "Let rotting pigs float"
This is tying into a lot of things,
but what I think what you're really getting at is that on a biological level, there is no difference between things. During this singularity mindset, essentially everything can be related, but the artist is revealed in their choices of connections.

It takes poking the pig sometimes to really get it.
Hakuna Matata

[not here]

Cynical and perverse as this piece might seem, Frank, I think I see your kindness and sincerety in that toy sailboat. And in your case, I strongly doubt it is lost.