I am a farmer <br />who are up before first light <br />and I drink my coffee <br />between the cows in the stable <br />where milking machines <br />are doing their thing sucking <br />and I pour cream into the black. <br /> <br />A few eggs from my own chickens <br />and sheep chops from the animals <br />that grazes right over the farm <br />is great for breakfast. <br /> <br />Later I walk down to the fields <br />or ride on Umfaan <br />my Arabic stallion <br />to see <br />if the keepers <br />are tending the cattle <br />and where they are grazing. <br /> <br />Sometimes I can stay for hours <br />in the grassland <br />and look at the bushes <br />about me <br />and the serenity <br />of it all climbs very deep <br />down into my heart. <br /> <br />I am as strong as the earth <br />that I love <br />and help to hack holes <br />right through iron stones <br />with a pickaxe <br />where the new fence <br />pole after pole <br />is beginning to stand. <br /> <br />I am pitched into this Africa <br />just like this <br />and have nowhere else <br />to go to <br />and my hands are hard as rock <br />from years of work <br />and years of resistance <br />against the sun and weather <br />and I love my farm <br />and my country.<br /><br />Gert Strydom<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-am-a-farmer/
