ਪੱਤਝੜ

 ..

ਸ਼ੁਕਰਾਨਾ ਹੈ 

ਉਹਨਾਂ ਪੱਤਝੜ ਦੇ ਸੁਨਹਿਰੀ ਪੱਤਿਆਂ ਦਾ

ਜੋ ਜ਼ਿੰਦਗੀ ਦਾ ਸੁਨੇਹਾ ਟਾਹਣੀਆਂ ਤੇ ਲਿਖ ਰਹੇ ਨੇ। 

ਖਾਕ ‘ਚੋਂ ਉਪਜੇ ਖਾਕ ਹੋ ਜਾਣਾ ਕੀ ਮਾਣ ਕਰੇ ਕੋ ਜ਼ਿਦੰਗੀ ਦਾ!

ਖਾਕ ਤੋਂ ਵੀ ਵੱਧ ਮਹੀਨ ਹੋ ਕੇ ਦੇਖ ਜੇ ਸੱਚ ਲਭੱਣਾ ਜ਼ਿੰਦਗੀ ਦਾ!

 

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Farmworker Women

(Dedicated to all those women  working in the BC farms)

Women come and work in

the wide spread BC farms.

Smiling and energetic they come

from the land of Punjab

educated, uneducated, married

unmarried young and old

all become slowly and slowly

hard-working farm labourers!

 

From the land of the five rivers

soon women arrive to Canada

they work in the farms every where.

Many of them are attracted to

Fraser Valley ornamented with

sharp rich colours of raspberry,

blue berry and strawberries.

 

Brides take off their gold and silk

come wearing  t-shirts and jeans

with soft henna coloured palms

women come with holding babies

women with pre-schoolers

women with grandparents

women with old in-laws and

some with old parents

and aunts and uncles

women with large families.

Women work around the clock

their hands work non-stop

in the fields of raspberry

blueberry and strawberry.

Women pick mushrooms

cut broccoli and sprouts

marshy land is under their feet

under the rain of pesticide

their hands get blisters

their feet get swollen

their eyes become watery

they breathe on fumes

and their arms, necks and faces

get infected with killer pesticides.

Working the soil they become soil.

Women work day and night

their hands work non-stop.

Longer hours more than dawn to dusk

women work and get tired

come back with aching feet and hands

when are taken back to their homes

in a stuffed van of a contractor

where they can not even breathe.

Working women, labourers, they just work !

 

They come back home late at night

tired and then they start home-shift –

cooking for their hungry children

for their men, for their large families.

they wash everybody’s dirty dishes

and do everybody’s laundry.

Women take care of everybody

– crying hungry or sick children

Women look after everybody’s needs

remain unaware of their own needs

women go to bed vary late

after everybody’s gone to bed

and after making preparations

for everybody  tomorrow’s work

and they have to get up very early

before the first ray of the sun rises

and get ready to go to the farms again.

 

Farmworker women are brave- Zindabad!

by

Surjeet Kalsey (1985)