Hardy believed the man harrowing clods
could outlast nations and wars,
yet eighty years later the horses are gone,
and a peasant culture that outlived generations of rulers
and cared not which side was which
has been buried beneath an insatiable global commerce,
a corporatte Dynasty that supplies food
heedless of land and people.
But Hardy was right
in thinking ‘a maid and her wight’ will outlast them all,
and maybe that foundation will be enough to recreate a culture
where our food again is rooted in love.