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McFarland California
Amarjit ChandanPash lives here in the orchards
plums………………….apples……………………grapes
oranges……..apricots,
in the fields of wheat and cotton
The wind…the sun…..pigeons
the drowsy tractors
………………………….ask Pash:
tell us, what was it like as a child,
…………….and as a young man?When cotton balls bloom like
clusters of stars in your dreams
don’t you feel restless?When you remember the sun
sliding on the sand dunes in your village,
on the prison walls, in the dreams of the
sleeping prisoners, don’t you feel sad?Pash stays quiet.
On a nearby line
children’s clothes sway
in the afternoon sun.Poet Note: Pash: A Punjabi poet who lived in California in 1987
and was assassinated by Sikh fundamentalists in March 1988
in his home village in East Punjab.Photo: Amarjit Chandran
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