'you must come!'
Vicky invites me to the party
A Saturday Party!
on Friday i am on my way
back from a long stroll of morning hours
i pause at the down-corner
a garden of thirteen hectors,
a property of Vicky's father
there i meet two young sheep
tied with one single rope,
on a barely grassed ground,
bleating helplessly...
they are for the party!
on Saturday they will be slaughtered...
slaughtered for the party
slaughtered for us...
disturbed, i near them,
take the rope and tug them at a distance
there is abundant water and grass
the sheep drink at length
and then begin to graze
what a poor creature!
destined for the butcher's knife
since their birth...
i sigh with a sense of misery...
'what is remarkable in that?'
interrogates black-faced sheep
'when did a sheep last die of old age?'
'we do not own ourselves...'
'we do not own our lives'
the other, the white-faced, joins the chorus
'we exist to be used...
every last portion of us
our flesh to be eaten
our bones to be crushed
and fed to poultry
nothing escapes,
except, perhaps, the gall bladder,
for none of you would eat it...'
the next day,
on Saturday morning,
the Party-morning...
the sheep are back on the barren ground
"are they counting the last
hours of their life?
how miserable it is!"
i near the sheep
to express the new desire of my heart
perhaps my 'burden' to save them
"i'm thinking of buying you
from Vicky's father..."
i utter my desire
not with much confidence
but with a conviction...
for a moment they gaze at me
my eyes meet theirs...
'what will that accomplish?
a purchase of new slaughter-animals?
and what will you do with us after all,
after 'liberating' us from slavery?
set us free on the public road?
bind us in cages and feed us grass?'
i wait for the buzz in my mind to settle,
waiting for a sign
and after a minute, i take a step forward
and the sheep back away
to the limit of their rope...
i step back and back to home
with a vague sadness and helplessness
the hour of the party is begun
i sit in between Vicky and his father
with a plate containing two mutton chops
am i going to eat this?
i struggle to answer...
am i going to ask forgiveness afterwards?
a drop of tear falls into my plate
and i leave the table
with a vague sadness and helplessness...
(inspiration: j m coetzee's disgrace)
Vicky invites me to the party
A Saturday Party!
on Friday i am on my way
back from a long stroll of morning hours
i pause at the down-corner
a garden of thirteen hectors,
a property of Vicky's father
there i meet two young sheep
tied with one single rope,
on a barely grassed ground,
bleating helplessly...
they are for the party!
on Saturday they will be slaughtered...
slaughtered for the party
slaughtered for us...
disturbed, i near them,
take the rope and tug them at a distance
there is abundant water and grass
the sheep drink at length
and then begin to graze
what a poor creature!
destined for the butcher's knife
since their birth...
i sigh with a sense of misery...
'what is remarkable in that?'
interrogates black-faced sheep
'when did a sheep last die of old age?'
'we do not own ourselves...'
'we do not own our lives'
the other, the white-faced, joins the chorus
'we exist to be used...
every last portion of us
our flesh to be eaten
our bones to be crushed
and fed to poultry
nothing escapes,
except, perhaps, the gall bladder,
for none of you would eat it...'
the next day,
on Saturday morning,
the Party-morning...
the sheep are back on the barren ground
"are they counting the last
hours of their life?
how miserable it is!"
i near the sheep
to express the new desire of my heart
perhaps my 'burden' to save them
"i'm thinking of buying you
from Vicky's father..."
i utter my desire
not with much confidence
but with a conviction...
for a moment they gaze at me
my eyes meet theirs...
'what will that accomplish?
a purchase of new slaughter-animals?
and what will you do with us after all,
after 'liberating' us from slavery?
set us free on the public road?
bind us in cages and feed us grass?'
i wait for the buzz in my mind to settle,
waiting for a sign
and after a minute, i take a step forward
and the sheep back away
to the limit of their rope...
i step back and back to home
with a vague sadness and helplessness
the hour of the party is begun
i sit in between Vicky and his father
with a plate containing two mutton chops
am i going to eat this?
i struggle to answer...
am i going to ask forgiveness afterwards?
a drop of tear falls into my plate
and i leave the table
with a vague sadness and helplessness...
(inspiration: j m coetzee's disgrace)
