Splash
Rain, Rain and Rain
A sought-after
Ethiopian winter
Farmers are happy
To welcome you again
Tilling their land,
Select seeds at hand.
Rain, Rain and Rain,
A tiny water ball,
Diagonally you fall
From high
When thunderous
Lightning plows the sky.
Though detested
Is your lash on many
Towner’s windowpane
Your tardiness
Is farmer’s pain.
Rain, Rain and Rain
A seed sown on the sod
Takes bath in your hold
To give yields hundred fold.
Rain, Rain and Rain
Although you prove
Averse to calm
Busy, a farmer
His wife and children
Know no rest
On the farm.
Porridge and hot drinks
Keeps them from
A befalling harm.
Rain, Rain and Rain
After allowing a shower
To crops, to a shiny sun
You cede place.
And when
The wind caresses
The crops at a mild pace
They exhibit
A choreographed dance,
Also with
A mellifluous music birds
From their nests
Forward advance,
While barefooted children
Run wild
No longer afraid
Of summer’s dust whirlpool
Their eyes that blind.
As lush grasses
Thrive here and there,
Agreeable, the occasion
Herds also find.
Rain, Rain and Rain
Till things
Shepard and herds get better
They retreat to a cave
Or in
A tree shade
Seek shelter.
Rain, Rain and Rain
Thirsty rivers inundate
Drank red-and-black-soils
Mixed water
To their hearts’ content,
Making a confluence
To share to riparian countries
Ethiopia’s blessings
And affluence.
Rain, Rain and Rain
Neighbors, relatives
And friends
Cannot communicate
Also going to school
And a court
For two months
Comes to a halt.
Rain, Rain and Rain
When you depart,
Yellow daisies sprout!
BY ALEM HAILU G/KRISTOS
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY 23 JULY 2023
