BY ALEM HAILU G/KRISTOS
From late childhood there was one thing that me used to botherWhy my physically challenged carpenter father,Who with contemporaries a level ground enjoyed neverThough in nimbleness than the fit proves better,True to cultural dictates, ill-treats my domestic chores saddled motherAnd heeds not her say though by the sweet of their browAs responsible parents they were happily bringing my sister and I together?
I still wonder why, why, why my sister who has IQOn par with me if not better, to help out motherWas denied the right to pursue education furtherWhile I was given a chance to prove a man of letter(s)? I remember, crossing many a pool, barefooted, I used to trekA long distance to a nearby town’s a school,Where for my provincial and shabby clothes I was seen a foolBy 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 campusThere too I was looked down by studentsHailing from families of the top brass. When I went abroad for a higher education Worse still, I met men, color has colored whose vision.Ironically my dissertation was drawing attentionTo why should the broad mass be standers byAnd with ill-fate marked dieWhile 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. I need your feedback. I prepared this poem as per OXFAM ideals on inequality.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 9 MARCH 2023
