Young Mexican picker man

rises from a mattress on the floor

of a dilapidated trailer

shared with nine other mattresses.

Buys a chicken bag lunch

from the local seller of chicken bag lunches

and climbs on board the contractor bus

with contractor boss man.

Young Mexican picker man

plucks tomatoes to fill his bucket

under the blazing Florida sun

his sweat anointing our Florida earth.

Piece work at forty five cents a bucket

thirty two pounds of tomatoes

less than penny and a half a pound.

It is cheaper to rent slaves

than to own them.

Picker man wants a tiny house

circa de su familia

and so he toils for his woman and son

in plain sight yet sight unseen

by all of us for all of us

the blind eye turned.

Behind the gates of Mar-a-Lago

in the county of the picker man

amid the laughter a black tie ball.

Christ in the Eucharist

as invisible as the cost of red tomato

mixed with an ounce of vodka

a poor man’s labor and a dash of

women’s tears.

©Toritto (words) - 2011