The Tractor Sent Out
Childlike because still a child bent under the long onions,
not the onions but the stems, not the stems but the weeds,
rough pigweed six feet tall, overshadowing the child workers
working for a farmer by Tiegs Corner, not a farmer we know,
not even by name, no face, onions in dry dirt hard like concrete
stubborn not coming out by hand, and a tiller sent out,
tractor slowly digging up onions and pigweed, but pigweed stays up,
barely unstable, cutting a barely breathing wind
God sent down on this Sunday midday heat
_______________
Zeke Sanchez
Review by Jan Wiezorek
How difficult it is to discuss oppression and social justice without being preachy, but Zeke Sanchez manages this wonderfully in “The Tractor Sent Out,” a story of a child working for a nameless farmer. We are incensed by the onion, the pigweed, and the heat of God’s wrath over the stubborn landscape. This poem shouts to us to see, judge, and act for mercy.