REAPERS IN A MIELIEFIELD by Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali

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Faces furrowed and wet with sweat, 

Bags tied to their wasp waists, 

women reapers bend mielie stalks, 

break cobs in rustling sheaths, 

toss them in the bags 

and move through row upon row of maize.

Behind them, like a desert tanker, 

a dust-raising tractor

pulls a trailer, 

driven by a pipe-puffing man 

flashing tobacco-stained teeth 

as yellow as the harvested grain.

He stops to pick up bags 

loaded by thick-limbed labourers 

in vests baked 

brown with dust.

The sun lashes 

the workers 

with a red-hot rod; 

they stop for a while 

to wipe a brine-bathed brow 

and drink from battered cans 

bubbling with malty maheu

Thirst is slaked in seconds, 

Men jerk bags like feather cushions 

and women become prancing wild mares; 

soon the day's work will be done 

and the reapers will rest in their kraals.

mielie : maize (Afrikaans)

maheu :- mielie meal gruel, slightly fermented and drunk cold (Zulu and Sotho)

kraal : African village (Afrikaans)