Hidden Harvest

from a distance

almost festive

rippling in the morning breeze

soft conversations

great piles of scallions

a pungent sun illuminates the faces of young girls

she keeps grabbing them, straightening out their roots and tails

in a little gesture of self-consciousness, she pulls her sweater

away from her face

knocks the dirt off, ties a rubber band around them

Ejido San Quintin

all are packed in ice

and shipped to Great Britian

__________

from a distance

almost restive

rising on the 20th floor

clipped conversations

great piles of papers

a humming fax machine illuminates the faces of young girls

they keep grabbing at her, straightening out her hands and fingers

in a little gesture of self-consciousness, she pulls her sweater

away from her face

lifts it off the paper tray, sticks a sticky on it

Ejido San Quintin

all are packed in ice

and shipped to Great Britian

__________

from a distance

almost resistive

basking in the building’s fluorescent light

algebraic conversations

great piles of direct objects

a deadened emotion illuminates the faces of young girls

he keeps changing them, sorting out the nouns and verbs

in a little gesture of trained-consciousness, he quickly minimizes

the screen from his face

knocks the dirt off, ties a rubber band around them

Ejido San Quintin

all are packed in ice

and shipped to Great Britian

__________

from a distance

almost imperceptive

breezing through the morning frequencies

anxious reservations

great piles of diners

a poetry audience illuminates the faces of young girls

she keeps grabbing them, straightening out their roots and social

whereabouts

in a non-literal gesture of class-consciousness, he pulls her

sweater away from her face

knocks the dirt off, ties a rubber band around them

Ejido San Quintin

all are packed in ice

and shipped to Great Britian

__________

from a distance

almost assertive

shuffling through the evening news

moot conversations

great piles of rotting vegetables

a pungent spin-off literature illuminates the faces of young girls

it keeps grabbing him, chopping up his roots and raison d’êtres

in a tactically abstract solidarizing gesture of class-consciousness,

she peels his self conscious piece away from her face

knocks the dirt off, ties a rubber band around it

Ejido San Quintin

all are packed in ice

and shipped to Great Britian

_________

Ejido: A landholding community owned collectively by its members. In 1992,

the Mexican congress (largely at the behest of Wall Street) passed legislation

aimed at watering-down Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution (guaranteeing

the fundamental economic and cultural rights of the ejidos), opening the way

for the privatization and commercialization of the lands, thus rendering the

peasants’ political gains (stemming from the Mexican Revolution of 1910-

1917) effectively moot.

Source: Platform (Atelos, 2003)