I just can't help it. Busy or not, I have to share this poem. It kinda makes you pause and think a little bit. This poem also reminds of a story my older sister told me a long time ago. When she was younger, much, much younger, years ago, my parents raised some farm animals. My sister fell in love with a little piglet. It was her playmate, her best friend. One day she came home from school and couldn't find the piglet. She asked the housekeeper and discovered that her playmate, her best friend, had been slaughtered for dinner that day. Decades later, my sister still couldn't eat pork because it reminded her so much of her little piglet friend.
The day I met you first
Was the day of my birth
Pink and round, me oh so plump
With Mom I gaily frolicked.
Lovingly you looked at me
Praising, “Oh, so round, what a cutie!”
Every day you came by to visit
Bringing cool water and delicious veggie treats.
Mommy and I were so touched
Your kindness worth more than gold
I lived a peaceful life
Under your care and protection
Growing more plump with each passing day
Just eat, rest and play…
So lovely was this early morn
As clouds were drifting across the sky
Cuddling together, Mommy and I
Unaware of the befalling tragedy!
Two brawny young men
Strong like tigers and elephants
Squashed my tiny body
Flat into a cage of horror!
There was no way to escape!
O God, what purgatory was this?
I wailed in fear and terror
Mom, oh Mom, please save me!
Oh caretaker,
please come protect me quickly!
Rescue my life, I’m still at a tender age!
Mom was crying out in sorrow
Tears of desperation filling her eyes
The immense Heavens cannot contain
This horrendous emotional pain!
My caretaker turned away
Hands busy counting a stack of money
Haplessly I rolled around in the car trunk
Breaking heart more painful
than bodily misery!
The two young men bantered:
“This piglet will be so tasty!
Tomorrow we’ll slaughter him
To celebrate the birth
of the wife’s newborn baby!”
Oh, how ironic this life
My soul is shattered
Tears flow in my heart
Like blood running in rivulets.
I thought you loved me
Nurturing me to maturity
But all this was a sham
For you, it’s just profit and gain!
Tomorrow my body will be cut to pieces
My flesh and bones
turned to sheer torture
Just so people can laugh in merriment
At their happy feast and gathering.
To your children and others’ too
I wish them all long lives
So the family can stay together
Not endure the same fate as mine…
I pray the whole family lives nobly
To be human in many lifetimes
And never be reborn as pigs
Paying forever karmic debts!
Alas, good-bye life…
I ache for my gentle suffering mother
In tears I am overcome…
Oh, Mommy! Mom…Mom…
The following video of "Words of a Piglet" is an artistic presentation of the poem, broadcast on Supreme Master Television and can be download free of charge. The language is originally Vietnamese.
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