Rural Proletarian Children, 1914
Rural Proletarian Children, 1914
after a photograph by August Sander
Days spent out-of-doors
At hard but useful labor
Are meant to give the poor
The kind of suntanned vigor
Envied by managers
In temperature-controlled
Cubicles who hunger
For bare feet and the gold
Complexion that’s denied
To these, whose shaven heads
And eyes set far too wide
Suggest that they’ve been fed
A vitaminless food,
And made to stay inside
Until whatever should
Have made them golden died.