FARMER SYKES speaks his mind:
Do you think your wireless and aeroplanes
Are half as helpful as timely rains?
Lang-distance ‘phone an’ lang-firing gun
May be all varra weel, but lack of sun
Stops all real progress: without it how may
A man cut an’ pike an’ cart his hay?
Wi’ all your inventions where wud you stand
If herds are not tended, an’t’ waiting land
Is unploughed? No tatties, no turnips, no wheat,
What would you brazzened fools have to eat?
Reckoning machines can’t turn a black frost,
Or save beast’s fodder when needed most.
Grand fields of rye an’ barley an’ oats
Are better than mass-produced townified coats,
An’ I’d liefer own some good sound ewes
Than a few extra pair of machine-made shoes.
What use are they if you’re nobbut half-fed? . . .
Inventors can’t yet turn stones into bread!
(Dorothy Una Ratcliffe)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, Mind Poems, Progress PoemsBased on Keywords: nobbut, turnips, inventions, wireless, fodder, wud, liefer, aeroplanes, varra, inventors, unploughed