"On Whether or Not The Pig is Indigenous to the New World"
from “I Hear America Cooking”

My own theory is that the pig landed near Miami circa 1542
and left the same day in a rented DeSoto
Sometime later, the pig arrived in the SW
and enjoyed the distinction of being
the only adventurer of European origin
to be both domesticated and savoured in that region.

In Greenland the Inuit use jackhammers
in order to break through the ice
and bury their dead
my own climate has the morality of a chainsaw

“The white man will freeze to death in the arctic,
if left to himself,” the elder said
after translation, “but now with schooling
some Inuit too have frozen.”


                            John Moritz

                                      1946 – 2007