Meanwhile
 

A house is being built
A man is building a house
A pig is being killed
A man is killing a pig
A bridge is being constructed
A man carries a dead pig
across the bridge
on the other side of which
a man is building a house

The man building the house
is Australian
he says
the man with the dead pig
may not eat meat
on his building site

If he sits on the other side of the bridge
and eats the pig there
is that okay?  (are the gods appeased?)

The meating-eating labourers cannot work
on the millionaire’s house
(did I tell you he is a millionaire?
No? well he is.)

The builder shrugs & crunches crackling
his pleasure vindicates the death of the pig
(it was a wild one anyway and
mauled sheep and ate lambs)
The billionaire
(yes, he has become richer since I began
due to high interest rates
and no taxes in the Cayman Islands)
the billionaire sits 
among the profiles, scaffolding
stacks of concrete blocks
and rare native timbers.
He eats a tofu burger.

©Penny Somervaille