Matt Miller, "Thrift"

Matt Miller

Thrift

When they stuck
the hung pig, the copper
tub for Saturday
baths was set under
to catch the blood.
The women swirled
their hands back, forth,
until the froth settled—
fibers clung fingers,
trailing wisps of clot
to make the sausage
for the funeral dinner.

The young man had slipped
on the coop roof;
chicken shit streaked,
mucked cream, on wood
shingles. He bled out
through the guts
in six long days
of Lutheranism.
It was a pitchfork,
handle-first in the dirt.
They didn’t want
to bend the tines.
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Matthew Moser Miller is a senior English major with a concentration in Creative Writing at Denison University. While studying abroad, Miller was awarded the Aberdeen University Calder Prize for Poetry. When not in Granville or Scotland, Matt lives on his family farm near Butler, Ohio.
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RECONFIGURATIONS: A Journal for Poetics & Poetry / Literature & Culture, http://reconfigurations.blogspot.com/, ISSN: 1938-3592, Volume Three (2009): Immanence/ Imminence
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