Poetry

•Poetry •Sketches •Book Summaries

previous|next A Farmer's Demise The sweetly burning sun The smoothly flowing sweat Blithe blisters in my hands From untiring ferment. The bosom of the earth Fed with foreign seed. My heart that awaits A crop of bettered breed. Seducing the land The beat of the rain Like a debutant father I wait for the grain. But the soil bears no fruit. I have no crop to hay. Hopes buried with the lies And traps that they lay. It wasn't the scented soil And thorough was my toil The seeds' prevarication Mothered destitution. My family foundered Perishing in poverty. Victims of seed-sellers' Greed and Apathy. The price of poverty too high For honest work to suffice. The deceit of the rich Celebrated my demise. This poem is about the hybrid seed controversy which rages on in India. The hybrid seeds, as marketed by the MNCs promise the farmers a better yield. This however hasn't materialized. And since the hybrid seeds are more expensive, the farmer's have suffered a two way loss. Not only did they have to shell out extra money. But because of the poorer yield they have not been able to recover the costs. This has led the farmer's to bankruptcy and unable to feed their families, many have been driven to the point of suicide. All this in a country where a vast majority depend on agriculture for their livelihood… - © Himanshu previous|next Have anything to say? Drop your comments in our guestbook Back to Top