A Morning In a Tea Estate

 

It’s morning the sun is rising behind the hills

The tea garden below is bathed in golden rays

The factory is waking up after a short sleep

For it’s the season of harvesting, the peak days

The leaves plucking women are streaming out

With gathering basket hung on their backs lean

Calling out to their colleagues to join the parade 

To the job among the bushes so hard and mean

Light a bidi* dear sister and walk on as you smoke

Into the tea bushes for that’s where lies our rice

Put your head down and get going with intention

Chat as your fingers move gathering leaves of price!

             

 *bidi = a cone shaped cigarette made of tobacco wrapped with a piece of leaf

Xavier Bage

Sat, August 13, 2016