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induh
ashes scattered
we flew
everywhere
(carried on God’s tinfash?)
we went
to every place
that would take us
bring me your weary
your disenfranchised
and yes, those looking for
all those things
yeItiyoPia merEt mafrat yaqatat
(like peace and freedom and health and love and…and …education, clean water, life without hunger…)
damn, but I wanna go home
dig my hand deep into the dark rich soils
(can you smell it like I can?)
and claw out in my hungry fists
all the treasures she’s kept buried
ever since jegninet died
ImayE speaks of places and times
of people and things and stories of birds and
(yes)
even slaves
of war times and peace
of the thunder in the Wellega sky
and the isat in the ferenj Teb-menja
[I will one day become
the ink for her stories
and wish
with every fiber of my being
that I had been there
to meqmes on my own milas
the sweetness
of my mother[’s] land]
last night I dreamt again
of things I’ve never known
and wished with all I am
to be back there
again
leave my heaven for the birthplace of my
nirvana (…and my pain)
mother
is earth
and I hunger for her cool touch
upon my tired soul
I long for her to take me back
and keep me this time
I’ll lie docile on her
Welcoming knee
and let her worry out the wrinkles
of the Western land that had mothered (smothered?) me
long (enough!)
I long to be
back amongst the flock
who bleat like me -
my land is my shepherd
my conscience and my voice
my soul’s melody and my heart’s choice.
Lillu
1/2/02 | 