THE KOSHER PIG

-Yakov Azriel

August 10, 2010

“And the pig — although it has true hoofs, with the hoof cleft through, it does not chew the cud; for you it is impure.” (Leviticus 11:7)

I.

I stand outside the entrance to a synagogue.

Despite the heavy rain, I hear

           Them read in the Torah how

           Balaam’s donkey saw an angel’s hand and sword.

I oink loudly, “Let me in, I want to pray,”

And pound my cloven hoofs on the thick wooden door.

           But they all stand unmoving in silent prayer

           And my hoofs cannot open the handle of the door.

I stand outside the window of a yeshivah

And brush aside the snow, and wipe the frost;

           Inside, pupils sit and listen to the Rav

           Explain the laws of the ox that gores.

I oink loudly, “Let me in, I want to learn,”

And pound my cloven hoofs on the window pane.

           But thick snow muffles my voice

           And winter winds drown out my beating on the iced glass.

I stand outside the fence of a house Friday night

And in the dark, watch candles burn; I smell

           Chicken soup and stuffed fish the wife has cooked

           As her husband chants of a gazelle that leaps on hills of myrrh.

I oink loudly, “Let me in, I want to eat,”

And pound my cloven hoofs on the latched gate.

           But night’s blackness hides me from their sight.

           In my small, beady pink eyes are tears.

I, who was born in mud,

The son of an obese sow and a drunken wild boar,

           Ask: Is there no passage, no verse, no word, no letter

           That will let me in?

Does not the God of Israel desire the heart?

In His Tent of Meeting, where is my place?

           For I have read in Psalms: “Though my father and my mother forsake me,

           The Lord will take me in.”

II.

each night the pig lies in his sty and dreams;

each night the same gray dream he dreads returns:

           alone on a raft — under a black clouded sky —

           with no oars, no rudder, no helm;

alone on a raft — under a moonless sky —he drifts

on a flowing river, toward a distant waterfall

and each night he hears the same high-pitched voice squeak:

           “no way out, no way off, Bacon-Boy.”

in the river boulders jut

the current flows swiftly

the waterfall grows louder

as does the high-pitched voice:

enjoying the ride, Lardy-Lad?”

the raft is swept faster in the rapids

the pig runs back and forth on the unsteady raft

and the river is not water, but lard

and the raft is not wood, but ham

the waterfall roars louder and louder

and the waterfall is the edge of the world

or is it the end of the Word?

the voice laughs and chuckles:

           “did you really think, Porker-Porkchops,

           a sow’s ear could become a silken purse?

           did you really believe, Swiney-Whiney,

           in your snout a ring of gold could shine?

           did you really imagine, Ham-the Ham,

           they would agree to circumcise

           a castrated pig?

           get on your knees and kneel, Wholly Hog;

           for blessed are the piglets;

           surely they will inherit the kingdom of —”

Yakov Azriel was born in New York (as Gerald Rosenkrantz) and came to live in Israel after finishing his BA in English literature in Brooklyn College. He later completed an MA in Judaica, and in May 2004 he received his doctorate (on the stories of Rabbi Nachman of Braslav). He has published three full-length books of poetry: Threads From A Coat Of Many Colors: Poems on Genesis (2005), In The Shadow Of A Burning Bush: Poems on Exodus (2008), and Beads For The Messiah's Bride: Poems on Leviticus (2009), all published by Time Being Books. His new books of poetry based on the Books of Numbers, Deuteronomy and the Psalms will be published over the next few years. Over 150 of his poems have been published in journals and magazines in the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel, and his poems have won thirteen different awards in international poetry competitions. Yakov has twice been awarded fellowships from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture for his poetry.