New In Farming

…New In Farming ------------------------------- My Dad is showing me these days Our walnuts in the forest, The willows by the brook, And the boundary marks of all our pastures, and paddies. Teaching me to arc around the apples As deep as a full-spade To keep away the roots eating rats. Water the trees in summers’ heat, Apply white latex to prevent the stems from sunburn. Spray the trees with well-timed pesti’des, Fungi’des and insecti’des, Because the sensitive trees are to too many diseases very prone. Remember! Nitrogen encourages good growth, Phosphorus, root growth, Potassium, fruit and flower. Since I am the second senior in the three-men-family, Newly married, newly laid-off, New in farming; And he, an asthma patient, Is not feeling well, nowadays, often. (Last day at Harwan, Dhara, I saw an aged man stumbled, Falling faceward on his knees, and then down. And was helped by two youngmen walking in the street, As a child trying to stand on his feet.)