When you were an eagle
And hung in a tree,
flesh falling to field,
slipping between the worlds
invisibly
came a pig, transforming
flesh back to flesh
* * *
O little pig
so long I have endured pain
I am worn and weary
O little pig
I am neither alive nor dead
Rhiannon’s birds call over the waters
O little pig
the wild one teaches me
like Myrddin I long to be free
O little pig
I am full of fear,
carry my news to Gwydion
* * *
Then you were a man
with a long spear
to pierce stone;
like an eagle’s beak
it tore flesh from bone.
{This conflates verses ascribed to Myrddin in The Black Book of Carmarthen and part of the story in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi.}
greghill 