Eggs and Greens
in the olden times the women set off for the market
my grandmother used to tell me carrying a basket
majestically upon the topknots of their heads
they swung their hips as they went their long skirts
with their trains had trailed in pig shit
and now were raking up the droppings of the town
whose pavements they were tramping on their way
to sell their eggs and greens they’d brought in from their barns
but if they were taken by a need to “do it” what to do?
they’d put one foot down off the pavement and there and then
without losing anything of their majestic calm
they would do it in the gutter after slightly lifting up
their trailing skirts so that they would not get
too clarted up then going on their way
still full of dignity they went with swaying hips
proceeding with their baskets on the topknots of their heads
the glorious country women who in her girlhood days
came down on foot into the towns to sell
the eggs and greens they’d brought in from their barns
my grandmother used to tell me in the olden times
today I’d like to see those women
who pissed in public without feeling shame
who made a living simply from selling of their wares
borne in a basket on the topknots of their noble heads
while behind them their bustling trains
swept up the rubbish of the farms or dog dirt
of city streets but time goes by and all our appetites
today are glutted with inferior stuff
sealed in cellophane and the putrid smell of which
only gets worse year in year out and
further ever further off those great working dames
who once proceeded proudly with their baskets for to sell
their eggs and greens they’d brought in from their barns
Translated by James Kirkup
Page(s) 39
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