‘Maiming’ (Poem)

Summary

Once I met this couple

On my way back from visiting the aged fellas of my kinfolk

She and he both stooped as though to pick from ground

No! But bent over from years of bending to till

What toil to take a peasant meal home?

Twice I met this miner lad

The kid of the couple

Dressed in mud from crown to soul

What ceremony I wanted to ask?

For school bells for lads his world went hours before. That I am sure

This young earth dressed lad

Bent sideways as though to scratch a rib

No! He too, what toil to take home a paltry mine to fend a world of mouths?

Thrice I met this bent over farmer and mud-dressed miner

In this house of ailment

Here some coughed and others puffed

Here some peed and others pooped

Here some healed and others ailed worse

And here the farmer and the miner both came

Bent over to the fore and to the side

Both peed and pooped and coughed and puffed

For the miner's mine maimed the earth

And the farmer's farm maimed the belly