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)

Earth Poem

..

Earth

Mother earth,

I bow my head on your feet!

You raise us by giving us

food, water and warmth.

Earth weeps when it sees

Tones of tones wheat

do not go to those mouths

of millions hungry children

but it gets ruined burned under

the unseasonal torrential rain.

We unthankful children of yours

Let it happen and do not save

it from this natural disaster.

The earth – the rich soil of

my land of five rivers: Punj+aab

irrigated with these waters and

with farmworkers blood and sweat         ..

gives us golden wheat and paddy         

in abundance in our fields.

The golden ripe crops get

destroyed and ruined in the rain

outside under the weeping sky –

The wheat is grown enough

to feed the whole India and

to keep the hunger away.

But is it God’s will perhaps not that

poor will have to stay hungry for ever.

Farmworkers and consumers shed tears

Rich and politicians do not see the tears!

And the deaf and dumb rulers raise

their white elephant pets, pamper then

with expensive cars for joy riding!

Where is the father of the nation today!

Why do hungry and the poor have to wait

until the full stomachs are being over fed?.

That’s right hunger can wait until famine!

______________

“There are seven things that will destroy us: Wealth without work; Pleasure without conscience; Knowledge without character; Religion without sacrifice; Politics without principle; Science without humanity; Business without ethics.”   — Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

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