Madeline Munro
Zermatt, Easter '86
We saw now why the last in line
had called - a pig’s head
above us there, like an animal Christ
with the pallor of human death.
It was stuck on some post
or door where the huts
slope down at Zmütt, just off
the piste, below the restaurant.
I did go back to stare
but kept my mind away from
all of that, and from the red
that trailed along the snow.
Klein Matterhorn, Garten, Swarzsee -
the challenge of two black runs.
Time here to prop up skis,
grab our mid-day lounge in the sun.
A Walkman went the rounds,
Rachmaninov. A dentist in the group
was set to memorise
this hefty score for piano.
That night the chalet talk
went on for hours. Gaddafi bombed.
The unwhite outer world brought back,
knocking at every door.
‘He had it coming,’ a young American
pronounced. The arguments flared on
then out. Burning with mountain sun,
we turned our thoughts to morning.
Out of the broken quiet, left
like a child’s last words
in the drift to sleep, ‘The poor pig,
what a day it must have had.’
Page(s) 23
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