Known in Italian or Spanish as “Siesta”,
popular like jazz and precious like orchestra,
all in all opposite to rap,
in ordinary language, it’s called a
noon-time nap.
Taken with your face covered by your cap.
It’s a moment or so of sleep or rest,
with least disturbance at best,
in a world full of pressure and contest;
For children it is another matter,
dictated by the teacher
in a kindergarten quarter,
it is forced sleep over a desk-top
after a lengthy game of jigsaw-puzzle
or of a variety of juggling of toys and dolls.
In the college campus,
where students study almost overnight,
it’s a refresher,
bright as sunlight,
invigorating the muscles and nerves,
up to the middle of the night.
For old fellows or the slightly ill who can’t
do without it,
it’s bothersome and an inescapable habit,
ordered by the brain at a time it sees fit.
And so “the Siesta” persists,
in different forums and dimensions;
despite the urgency to gain time or speed,
with the struggle to do a good deed,
anywhere and everywhere,
for peoples of every culture or creed.
Copyright © 7 September 2019, By Berhanu
Tibebu Zewolde
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 15 September 2019
BY BERHANU TIBEBU ZEWOLDE
