#70 Kevin Brophy 'Those three cautionary pigs'

were so optimistic

when they set out

and so underdressed.

I want to be that one

in that red jacket, she said.

So we hurried through

the straw one and the stick one

to the brick one.

Is your house made of bricks

I asked her pointedly.

No, she said. There are no

bricks in this town and no

chimneys either. No wolves.

Only one pig called Daisy

kept behind a tin house.

There are dingoes.

The bricks, the wolf, the sticks,

the fire, the chimney, the pot,

none of this can be the point.

Those three little

wolf-eating pigs

were so optimistic

so young

when they set out

and look, they built houses

like natural tradesmen

though those bricks, straw and sticks

couldn't make the buoyant boat 

that's needed.