Last Harvest Poem by Melanie Emikohe

Grains are plump
Beautiful in yellow
Stalks are knee high
Sparrows are feasting
Past the decoy
The clouds have been kind
Filling our rivers
Bathing our dirt
The bullfrogs croak
For anticipated rendezvous

Two acres
Of everyone's meal
Is all that's left
Amidst the high fences
And their well-bred dogs
With customized collars
Who shoo
Those who get too close
Those who smell of sweat
And poverty
The barefooted
The grimy sleeves

A catacomb
Of withered seeded stalks
Long forgotten
Underneath
His granite floor
Where there once thrived
An endless field
Of dancing leaves
And industrious men
Of the earth
With hardened fists
Straw hats
Cracked soles
Riding their proud and mighty
Water buffalos.