We have opened up
A new leaf
To land on a new page
Where a poet sage
Is dealt a slap on the face
For readers willfully
Are getting locked in
A digital cadge
No longer enjoy they could
Poems’ uplifting mood
Nor relish its being
To the mind nourishing food
Nor heads to poetry nights
In the neighborhood
Nor buy books however good
Nor experience
Literary piece’s power
To entertain, enlighten, educate
And explain so as
To take one to an ivory tower.
Even the change of form
Couldn’t help to its
Palatable norm.
This unglamorous unfolding
Quite a mystery
Seems a symptom to
The clinical death of poetry
Death to the death
Of this literary piece
Since esoteric beauty
We are going to miss.
BY ALEM HAILU G/KRISTOS
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY13 JANUARY 2024
