Farm

 

What does it mean to be a farmer anymore?

Who owns that title?

 

Is it the…

 

Landlord-farmer, floating above the loamy-green

Detached from the earth

 

The farmer who does not plant or work in the soil

Absent from the field

 

Tractors driven by satellite, the spring plantings

Artificial stars

 

Who is the farmer? The landlord or the field-hand

The sewer, reaper

 

Crawling down the rows, fingers pressed into the dirt

Seeds and prayers and hope

 

Is she the farmer; is he? The unnamed hireling

Toiling in the sun

 

Sweat dripping from the brow, laborers watering

Nameless boys and girls

 

People without a claim, or recourse to the law

Dreamers without land