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New Farmer

There is a narrative for new farmers:
"I am making a lot of mistakes
but look, I am really doing something!"

Look at my hands - brownish and not so soft
and my pants covered in dirt and a drop of blood
(that's right, I can kill an animal).

Of course I could gain the signifiers
without throwing myself into difficult and unprofitable work
for which I have little training,

but I need something that has weight;
something hard and cool that I can carry
in place of the shame.

Inarticulable shame drove me
to simulate farms in Africa
and determine the likelihood that families would starve

(failure to meet calorie and protein needs).
I was the white man synthesizing data,
fingers spidery and impotent.

The farm has its own ugliness:
I keep the chickens fenced (for their own good),
I tear out weeds with prejudice,

but when the chicks overheat
now I am directly to blame.
The shame comes to rest in each panting bird
as I drip water into their beaks.

Some die, most survive, and I am not exhonerated
but at least I have something to do with my hands.

◄ Threat

Process ►

Comments

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Laura Taylor

Wed 27th Jan 2016 12:44

I really am sorry to be so late to respond to these magnificent poems, but at least I did in the end, and I am very happy to have read them. They're so dense and multi-layered, with a harsh core of the kind of brutally honest self-awareness that is incredibly rare in people these days. I am in awe.

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Cynthia Buell Thomas

Sun 17th May 2015 15:16

An excellent read, personal experience putting out a powerful message with fine execution. I really enjoy this.

Ell Harry

Sun 10th May 2015 19:33

right now..
thefarmer is dead
love this poetry

http://www.puisiprotes.ga/

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