Pigasus
John Steinbeck put the insignia of a winged pig
above the line “Ad astra per alas porci”
(To the stars on the wings of a pig) in all his books.
When Steinbeck
began his trek,
an English prof
was heard to scoff:
A novelist?
You? He hissed:
And pigs will fly!
But now, on title
pages vital
to our lit,
the author’s wit:
his “Pigasus”
waves to us
and soars on by.
David Lee Garrison is an emeritus professor of Spanish and Portuguese from Wright State University. His poetry has been read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac, and the title poem from his Playing Bach in the DC Metro was featured by Ted Kooser on American Life in Poetry. He won the Paul Laurence Dunbar Poetry Prize in 2009 and was named Ohio Poet of the Year in 2014. His most recent book is Light in the River (Dos Madres Press).