 ESG 2001 brown midriff, tattoos, piercings wild hair, wide eyes big white Ethiopian smiles (is it me, or do they grow the new tewlid taller - but not necessarily better?) platform sandals, toe rings painted-on jeans, and neTelas worn as cross-your-heart bras (is it me, or did someone forget to tell these doe-eyed does that it's a stadium, a sport game and not a fashion show?) testas on the fields tereba on the seats tifozos actually watching the field? players actually havin' skills? (is it me or are we actually getting good at this whole thing?) samboosas, sodas, water go for $2 each snapped up by the brown sugar crowd and the aged alike entered here for $5 today $10 on Ethiopia day and $7 on the Finale day a captive audience, spilling green paper like it DOES grow on the eucalyptus scenting California's Addis-style air used to come to rub shoulders with a city-full of people like me sendeQ-alama on a towel on a gangsta-rappa-style bandana on a t-shirt with a new style guramayle E(t in Ge'ez) YO (P in Ge'ez) YA who else but we can string this together and read it like it makes sense read it like it means home read it like it's code meant for only our Ethiopian eyes? two women, near kiosk # 31 fall into a teary embrace crying over memories spoken into the thunder of others' bliss into the strangely soothing cacophony of muziQa - new, old, old-new into the din of English-punctuated AmariNa and AmariNa-punctuated English pint-sized Ethio-Americans wearing shemma, wide eyes filled with a glimpse of what should have been theirs 13-months a year instead of a snapshot once every 365 days and i? i came hoping hoping to see hoping to be seen hoping to find... something to link me back to anchor me to let me fly to set me free to hold me still to let me see but mostly i came hoping - just hoping and took back a snapshot of beautiful imperfections chaotic heaven and frightening-delighting images with me. |
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