Though in dexterity my physically challenged carpenter father,
Than the physically fit proves better, as a source to his anger,
With contemporaries a level ground he enjoyed never!
From late childhood there was one thing that me used to bother,
Why my so discriminated father
On his turn true to cultural dictates, ill-treats
My domestic chores saddled mother
And heeds not her say though by the sweat of their brow
As responsible parents they were happily bringing
My sister and I together?
I still wonder why, why, why my sister who has IQ
On par with me if not better, to help out mother
Suffering a cold shoulder even by her mom
Was denied the right to pursue education further
while I was given a chance to prove a man of letter(s)?
I remember, crossing many a pool, barefooted, I used to trek
A long distance to a nearby town’s school,
Where for my provincial and shabby clothes I was seen a fool
By the relatively rich in showing courtesy far from cool.
Though stationery they didn’t lack,
Sad, I had a hand tied behind my back.
Alas, up on joining campus
Where I yearned for the sagacious a chance
There too in my class, I was looked down by students
Hailing from families of the top brass.
When I went abroad for a higher education
Enjoying fellowship and donation
Worse still, I met many; color has colored whose vision.
Ironically my dissertation was drawing attention
To why should the broad mass be standers by
And with ill-fate marked die
While the favored ,racist and
The corrupt few gobble over 3/4 of the pie? /
Discrimination based on disability, gender (Husband and wife, son and daughter, ) towners and provincial lads, the haves and have nots, the colored and others wise and inequitable distribution wealth.
BY ALEM HAILU G/KRISTOS
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 8 MARCH 2022
