The Near Past Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

A photo of the near past

The year is 19O1, a market on a muddy field
selling, God knows what, I see cattle, and children playing around
the muddy ground, it had been raining in the morning
but this does not dampen the excitement of the day; the people
back then did not bother with posh umbrellas.
The men wear suits that look like hand-me-downs from the rich
people on the hill, the women too, try to look elegant
wear hats, the children run around in long dirty frocks
they look happy living an alternative life among the adults;
not to forget the ever-present dogs.
At a farm workers' market, everyone has a half day off
before returning to work to feed and milk the cows.
On the scene rests peace of an unchanging world that will
Soon be shattered by wars, hunger and economic forces.
Nothing will be the same again as the 19th-century approaches.
I look at the photo and think, every living thing at the market
on that day is long since dead a few of them are remembered
perhaps a faded photo of great grandparents as young is found
in a cottage for workers, due to be demolished for a new road.
Forgotten is the life lived by farm workers of 1901