REAPERS IN A MIELIEFIELD by Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali
Faces furrowed and wet with sweat,
Bags tied to their wasp waists,
women reapers bend mielie stalks,
break cobs in rustling sheaths,
toss them in the bags
and move through row upon row of maize.
Behind them, like a desert tanker,
a dust-raising tractor
pulls a trailer,
driven by a pipe-puffing man
flashing tobacco-stained teeth
as yellow as the harvested grain.
He stops to pick up bags
loaded by thick-limbed labourers
in vests baked
brown with dust.
The sun lashes
the workers
with a red-hot rod;
they stop for a while
to wipe a brine-bathed brow
and drink from battered cans
bubbling with malty maheu
Thirst is slaked in seconds,
Men jerk bags like feather cushions
and women become prancing wild mares;
soon the day's work will be done
and the reapers will rest in their kraals.
mielie : maize (Afrikaans)
maheu :- mielie meal gruel, slightly fermented and drunk cold (Zulu and Sotho)
kraal : African village (Afrikaans)
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