Nepal and its brick factories( and the cruelty metered out to the donkeys and mules)

30 or so clay bricks
on their heads piled high
then they have to carry them
you might ask yourselves why
because apart from Donkeys
and Mules there are no trucks
its really rocky harsh terrain
with a beautiful blue sky

a richness seldom contemplated
anywhere below
the colours are so vivid
they almost have a glow
but the sandy rocky countryside
has heaps of shifting sand
and a bleaching sun to worry
about and to understand

in this inhospitable of places
bricks are made from clay
dug from the earth
the graft is hard
and under a hut a way
with little water
one soon begins to
understand what’s worth

water is for example
some shade to calm one’s soul
but these men have to slave in it
and, they must control
their intake and their diet
its a pretty basic place
when the wind blows sand all over
and fixes on your face

now imagine the poor donkeys
the voiceless one’s for they
have to carry massive loads
back and forth each day
they struggle at the best of times
but clearly when their tired
and have too many bricks on board
we’ve watched as they expired

gasped a long dry rasping cry
and sank onto their knees
cuts and lacerations
where the bricks did slowly squeeze
tore a gaping wound along
their backs, and each time they, walked
the pain must have been cutting
which is why some say

and fell spread eagled
downwards, onto the hot sand
and gasped just one more time
who can understand
the futility of over loading
animals like this
working them to death
in fact
something most resist

but the animal cannot slow down
for he’s kicked and whipped if he
tries to show his true fatigue
he must die for he cannot plea
but the pain and the exhaustion
must just overwhelm his heart
and finally they sink into the sand
and fail to start

bleeding from various foot wounds
I mean they have to climb
on shifting sands
and what it needs
is a brand new paradigm

somehow some encouragement
instead all that its gets
is kicked by some fat dealer
who has his whip and sweats
the body tired and finished
can’t take this dire approach
and will just collapse completely
its not something, we can broach
its not because of the animals
its the lack of verdant grass
and the lack of understanding
of the egg shells as we pass

making bricks is hard work
carrying them is too
the sun the heat
the dust
the feet
the back and shoulders do
give out when their extended
their sore when they are not
Nepal has dealt the young men there
cards with not a lot

of luck now that’s attached to them
and many are just shot
and die because of heavy bricks
that are frozen to the spot
cut deeply into living bone
where the skin’s been wearing thin.

its a really nasty wild unkind
wind that blow these days
and draws up sand depositing it
in, all sorts of ways
into the hair and on the skin, and into one’s ears
too
it really is a smothering cloud
that bends your back for you

the venom that’s behind it all
and the massive dumping power
that throws great heaps of rubble too
and not a tree or flower
can take that might at any time
for its forced, to withdraw
and rest up and be sheltered
which only the mad ignore

and donkeys that have sunk into the sand
its doubtful they
will climb into the heavens
via the milky way
its doubtful they will ever move
for them a step too far
they are lost and gone forever
no longer is there a star

to follow its so painful
and when no one seems to care
they pile bricks and more bricks
the mule knows, he’s aware
but the master wants the bricks away
not sitting in the store
and so however hard one works
your expected to do more

and the victims fall like
summer flies
and they hit the floor
wrestling with their pallid wings
that were working, before
but now their flimsy energy
having lost the power to be
in this grotesque “round up” land of ours
its for perpetuity