Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Women's History Month: Wednesday, March 17, 2021: Anna Maria's poem "The Farmer"




The Farmer

They said they would come again 

the promises still remained

the wait was long and a pain.

Nothing took away the pain

of seeing  him hanging

from the mango bough

he had marked out for his final rites.

Rightly done, the same bough

that sheltered him after he had spent

time in the fiery sun sweating

out with the spade and the seeds,

now wept barren, unable to fulfil the last

obligation it had made with its master

the seed sower, grower, the farmer

now dangling, his open eyes seeing

the emptiness where the greens

should have been?

His wife dry eyed,

asking that the bough

be cut down,

that the last rites

be performed by the three year old son

who played outside, posing like a child artiste

for  the avalanche of photographers,

that he may find rest from his labours

while  they began theirs.

Since no one came anymore,

in spite of the wait,

all promises in vain,

she bore the spade,

dug the earth, started to sow

not as a widow, 

but

as a farmer

who begins with ambition and hope.


© 2021 Anna Maria



Dr. Mary Annie A.V.,writes under the pen name Anna Maria(™). She has two collections of poems to her credit, and is working on the third. She’s been published in various anthologies in India and abroad, and featured  in many personal blogs. She resides in Kerala, India, along with her husband.


 

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