Cut and Taste

[ache_sp]

There are things you are remembered for
and there are things that you remember.

He said he'd ridden his bike over
to see if I wanted to go to the batting cages
and there I was
in the alley between the houses
soaked in blood thick to brown, coagulating
Pig sticker in one hand
the other inside a carcass
a big black boar twice my size
strung up, opened wide,
above a bucket of viscera, saws and hatchets.

I saw him, he turned right around
and rode off.

I remember learning that day
the thickness of skin
the difference between
having guts and being gutless
The taste of, and not for, blood.
Butchering, a how to
where to cut and with what.
Why certain cuts were more tender
and the best way to preserve their integrity.
Muscle, cartilage, bone separation
Skinning and beheading,
prior being far easier than the latter.

Taking a stab at it
is what kept me fed for weeks.

Batting cages and bat caves
still sometimes
keep me from hacking right in
even when I feel like I'm starving.