“Watch me pull a hog
out of my hat-”
It began actually with
great tragedy. Pet pig gunned
down by roaming hunters.
A post in the village brings
anonymous boar, wild and
left with the neighbors. No
room to freeze marks the
great salt experiment.

You’ve seen the lady sawed in
two but a carcass sawed in
twenty, hacked to sixty?
Three days water rinses salt
and reproduces fresh meat.
Real magic takes time.
Grinder refined assembly line
and a six kilo bowl of meat.

I used to count cards,
cut rope, link rings, but
to sublimate tomatoes, emancipate
the taste from a carrot, onions
and garlic disappear while
remaining. Watch this- I fill
a pot and abracadabra- which
is Italian for six hours of
simmering and
Presto!
prego-
the Great Ragú