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Six Lettuce Pickers
The Hyacinth Review
The Hyacinth Review

Six Lettuce Pickers

by
September 23, 2023
Filipinos cutting lettuce. Salinas Valley, California, Dorothea Lange, 1935

Born in Brooklyn NY, Ann Malaspina writes about the environment…

Swinging el cortito
the short-handled hoe
that made them
stoop so low
their faces were hidden
& only their backs
and arms were visible,
they pulled curly-leaf lettuce
from the dry earth
of Salinas Valley
twelve hours a day
at 40 cents an hour
so we could eat
salad.

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Born in Brooklyn NY, Ann Malaspina writes about the environment and social justice in poetry and children's books. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her poems have appeared in Gargoyle, Exit 13, Silkworm, New Verse News and more. Her new book "Zeke the Weather Geek: There's a Lizard in My Blizzard," with co-author Joan Axelrod-Contrada, comes out in May 2023.

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