SURVIVAL
His grandmother made us drink
before work began.
Sour wine and cough mixture
by the taste of things:
a poisonous warmth expanding
like a pack of nails inside.
It was seven o'clock
and cold fields had not woken
from their early dew.
The cat's called Socrates, she said,
because he ate the hemlock
in the garden, over there
past our broken tractor,
down by the chicken guillotine.
Picaroon Poetry, #16, May 2019. Kate Garrett
A wonderful blend of nostalgia horror and humour , a real showstopper John. Is the guillotine a real item?
Ray
Hi Martin
Thanks for that. So me and the cat both survived apparently. Looking forward to reading the rest of the new edition of Picaroon. Only read a couple of the others so far.
Cheers, John S
'Sour wine and cough mixture' What an interesting concoction.
Love it John
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john short
Tue 21st May 2019 17:10
Hi Ray
In the area of south west France back in the 80s this was a real item. They'd pop the chicken head-first into a kind of wooden funnel, pull the head out the bottom and slice it off. Don't know if that still exists, anyway I'm a vegetarian now.