Hama Tuma
Of guilt
The man ran after his fart
to slap it back
and erase the shame.
The stink lingers.
Today’s love is tepid, almost cold,
won’t dry a hankie,
no heat at all.
Time has subdued my countrymen,
they pass history twice and
leave no shadow behind.
The frog in the pond
laughed itself to death, the owl is blind.
In the Waldiba monastery, forever silent,
noisy festivities are held.
Time moves on grinding all,
changing all,
but the crocodile has no teeth
and the Ethiopian no guilt:
everyone’s heart is lost.
~ Hama Tuma
Hama Tuma is an important Ethiopian political activist, poet and writer of satirical articles and short stories. His first collection of stories, ‘The Case of the Socialist Witch Doctor and Other Stories’, was published by Heinemann London in 1993. He lives in Paris.