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The Golden Farmer
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by Leland Kinsey
A farmer was honored today,
dirt floors and set out in rows
five hundred miles of terracing
on the promontory common.
in thirty-five years of labor
Wattle-and-daub houses with thick thatch roofs
for his village. He is shy.
surround the common,
His wife asked her company in to eat
as do the tops of surrounding hills.
before my cousin and his wife drove
A double line of women marched
the couple to the ceremony. They offered us
from the church, their voices raised
boiled goat, plantains, lushoro,
in multi-parted exaltation.
a variety of sodas safer
Large beaded rings around their necks
and easier than tea or coffee
moved in sinewy rhythm
for which water would be carted long.
as they shrugged their shoulders in unison
His daughter circled the table
to the chanted hymns.
to pour a fine stream of water
A speech from the sector agricultural chief,
over our hands. She caught it
then one in English and Swahili
in a basin held under our hands
from my cousin, who had taught
as we quickly scrubbed. Out of the common pot
the farmer new surveying methods
we each drew pieces recognizable
better and faster than chain and rod.
or not, and ate it down to skeleton.
The farmer was given a goat as prize.
When all were done, the daughter
My cousin was given a stool
circled once again, this time with soap.
carved from a single block of ebony,
They took us to the kitchen garden
a bark-cloth vest,
that the grey water waters, a small bottle
and an elder’s staff smoothed
inverted by each plant.
by hand with shards of glass.
He showed us his fruit orchard
Depending on how presented,
for the family and for sale,
narrow or bulbous end foremost,
and his stand of legume trees
the knobkerrie signals peace, or war.
to feed his cattle constantly penned so they cannot ruin the ground
Returning the farmer and wife home
with their hooves and browsing.
we saw hoopoes by the hedgerows,
The trip to the village was up
striped mongooses in the margins.
from his high farm. The hills are ringed
The farmer’s children had hung a cutting cane
like topographic lines, lines of trees,
large rat named as verb not noun,
shrubs, elephant grass hold the taller
for sale on a stick by the road.
outer part of each great step
The children protect the pearl millet,
the gold farmer has helped devise.
thatch is made from the long fat stems, cattail-like heads hulled for grain.
Every church pew, every school desk
The rat harvest also pays as local protein.
had been taken from the tamped
In a poor land, wealth lies in these details.
Reprinted: Kinsey, Leland. “The Golden Farmer.” Sledding on Hospital Hill: Poems. 1st ed. new york: David R Godine, 2003. 27-29. Print.
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