The Pine Barrens: Part Two

Second excerpt from the Pine Barrens -

ver. 1:

We had come to a clearing
Where thousands
Of blueberry bushes grew.
In the center of it was
The packing house
-A small low building
With open and screenless windows
On all sides
In front of it was
A school bus marked
"Farm Labor Transport."

The driver stood beside his bus.
He was a tall and amiable looking man
With bare feet.
He wore green trousers and a T-shirt

The end of the working day had come
Pickers were swarming around a pump
Old women, middle aged men,
A young girl

A line was waiting
To use an outhouse
Near the pump

Inside the packing house
Berries half an inch thick
Were rolling up a portable conveyor belt
And eventually into pint boxes

Charlie's sister was
Packing the boxes
Charlie's daughter-in-law
Was putting cellophane over them
And Charlie's son Jim was
Supervising the operation

Charlie picked up a pint box
In which berries were mounded high
He told me with disgust that some
Supermarket chains knock off
These mounds
And put them in new boxes
Getting three of four extra pints
Per twelve-box tray

At one window, pickers were turning
In tickets of various colors
And they were given cash in return
One picker, who appeared
To be at least in his sixties,
Tapped Charlie on the arm
And showed him a thick pack of tickets held
Together with a rubber band

"I found these," the man said
"They must have fallen
Out of your son's pocket."
He gave the packet to Charlie
Who thanked him and counted the tickets

Charlie said, "These tickets
Are worth seventy-five dollars."

ver 2.

In the center
Of thousands of blueberries
Was the packing house

In front of it, a school bus
Marked "Farm Labor Transport

Beside the bus
Stood the driver - tall and amiable
With bare feet and green trousers and a T-shirt

The end of the working day
Had come.
Pickers were swarming

Old women,
Middle-aged men,
A young girl
Around the pump

A line was waiting
To use an outhouse nearby

Inside, berries half an inch thick
Were rolling up a portable conveyor belt
All the way into pint boxes

Boxes being packed and
Wrapped with cellophane
And supervised

Charlie picked up a pint box
In which berries were mounded high
Some supermarket chains
Knock off these mounds
And put them in new boxes
Getting three or four extra pints
Per twelve-box tray
He told me with disgust

Pickers turned in tickets of various colors
And then they were given cash in return

A picker at least in his sixties
Tapped Charlie on the arm and showed him
A thick packet of tickets held
With a rubber band.

The man said he found them.
Fallen from your son's pocket,
He said.

He gave the packet to Charlie
Who thanked him and counted the tickets
Worth all of seventy-five dollars