Pier's Plowman
Bowed by the weight
of centuries,
He leans upon his
hoe and gazes at the ground;
The emptiness of
ages on his face,
And on his back
the burdens of the world.
That's how I remember
the poem from High School English class. When I was on assignment in
the delta area of Vietnam I posed this photograph. Few will tell you
that the primary reason for the war in Vietnam was that the North needed
the rich rice farmlands of the South delta area. But that's exactly
what it was all about. The seperation of Indochina into four countries
left the North without its primary source of food.
The farmer in the
delta marked the hub of the cause why people were freely giving their
lives in Vietnam. On his back were the 'burdens of the world.'
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