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The Fruitful Fields of Maharashtra 

Where have all the riches gone_

The Fruitful Fields of Maharashtra

by Robert Leach

Where have all the riches gone?

...From the work of the woman

Seated Buddha - like amid

Sprawls of purple onions,

Sorting, sorting?

...From the sweating farmhand

His swift hoe lopping and slashing

At dusty outshoots

Of burgeoning sugar cane?

...From the mother and daughters

Herding scrawny recalcitrant billy goats

Over earth's dry crust

Towards possible pastures?

Does the drongo on the telephone wire know

Who works and who hurts?

Does the gliding, soaring, floating kite know

Who gets whose deserts?

Onion sorter
Hen
Sugar cane worker
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