"The Stone Pig"

Casey Elder

The Stone Pig

Casey Elder

in the backyard

the stone pig

plays sentry

wisps of smoke

drift by on the breeze

in the otherwise still night

beyond lies the crooked fence

bulging with the overgrowth

of ivy and aphrodite

in the shadow of the big house

a hammering on the sauna being built

ricochets out into the open air

i am looking into the yard

where my mother and father were married

within the soul of the 70’s

from my grandmother’s gardening

to my mother’s pruning

to mine and my brother’s

sometimes sleeping off the drink

on the covered swing

until the cold crept in

the stone pig

which nearly toppled me over in moving it

sits with all patience, watching