She had torn the continent apart,
Survived many attempts to bottle her up,
Thriving on two sides of it sometimes,
Once in the West,
Yet at the Horn
Without having to traverse the Sahara Desert;
Simultaneously she gets her work done.
Adored by men
Who worshipped her;
Signori and Governors,
Generals and Lieutenants,
Emperors
Conquerors
Eritrea is no stranger to Her
An unwelcome visitor;
Parasitic
On the patriotic,
Unapologetic
She feeds on hemoglobin
On bones and skin
Uncoveted melanin
Flooding the soil
They use Her to own
This land is our land
Today, red soil,
Tomorrow the world.
Eritrea is no stranger to her
And if it wasn't such a largely monotheistic country
That drew its name from Ancient Greece
They would've named her Athena
Unwelcome, undesired,
She makes her rounds
Though the last sighting of her
Was the start of a new millennium
She prevented thousands of
Men, women and children from witnessing
Its advent
Like the flu, the cold,
And the inevitable
Her visits are unavoidable
Tensions are always strung
But she probably knows Eritrea
Is too drained
To meet the next one,
Yet they throw her name around
Like it was nothing.
So if you hear bombs over Keren
Know they are the echoes of 1941
And if you hear gunshots in
What was once known
As Piccola Roma
Though undamaged before,
Know that War is no stranger to Eritrea.
-----
October Poetry: in the style of April Poetry (U.S. National Poetry Month),U.K’s poetry month is October.
Personal Mission: 31 days, 31 poems.
Challenge Accepted.Link to others: http://sarahkasm.tumblr.com/october-poetry-2012
