In Terms of Development

Nutritionists take care to plan
to do their surveys when they can
be sure the weather's fine and dry,
the harvest in, food intake high.

Then students seeking Ph.D.s
believe that everyone agrees
that rains don't do for rural study
-suits get wet and shoes get muddy

And bureaucrats, that urban type,
wait prudently till crops are ripe,
before they venture to the field
to put their question: 'What's the yield?'

The international experts' flights
have other seasons; winter nights
In London, Washington and Rome
are what drive them, in flocks, from home

And northern academics too
are seasonal in their global view
For they are found in third world nations
mainly during long vacations.