A Life of Quiet Desperation

Sadie was a migrant farm worker.

A Life of Quiet Desperation

 

By Elton Camp

 

How old do you think Sadie might be?

The truth is she is only twenty-three

 

A normal childhood she never knew

A lifelong ordeal she went through

 

With her picker parents she did roam

And never experienced any stable home

 

When the tomatoes are ready over there

They went, hoping for wages more fair

 

Sadie can just barely read and write

Although her mind is quick and bright

 

Helping to harvest she couldn’t shirk

So all day long she felt she must work

 

She felt it was her responsibility to try

To help her family somehow get by

 

It was at age fourteen Sadie was wed

And too soon came children to be fed

 

A better life she wishes she might see

But knows, in fact, that it will never be