Dave Bonta's "Plowman" catches a farmer at the start of a working day, already braced for refusal. The speaker says he is "ready to answer no to anything," which sounds stubborn, weary, or both. Perhaps the work has worn him down, or perhaps he simply wants to be left alone with the land.
The imagery stays close to the body and the soil. His shoes are dirty from walking the fields, and he says he wears "the ground / like a strange piece of ignorance." That line is odd and interesting. It suggests the earth clings to him like something he doesn't fully understand, or that a life of labor has left him with a different kind of knowing, one that isn't bookish or easily explained.
The last lines mention "so many oats / charged with growing," which gives the plain fields a quiet energy. The mood is rough, solitary, and a little defiant, but there is also a sense of deep attachment to the land.