Friday, July 11, 2014

I Met Orwell Last Night

I Met Orwell Last Night
(Tariku Abas Etenesh)


I talked to Orwell last night,
Of course in my dream;
Yes, I am talking about him;
That hallowed seer,
Of the gospel: nineteen eighty-four;
And in that dream-I woke up dreamingly into a serious talk,
In what turned out to be a stage fit for a debate of real politic,
We stood, I guess, over a strangely raised historical peak,
Furnishing a view of the world -so panoramic;”
There,
What commenced like a shy conversation,
Ebbed and grew bold into evasive friction:
I must have said, part beaming with shy pride:
“Look at this brand new world:
Of freedom and techno wonders,
Of democratic advancements and elections,
Of constitutions and justice,
And I guess -I added- part doubting my own words:
Look how ‘no big brothers’ prevail the like of your prophesies”

Orwell was too generous as to start with a smile:
“Yes, you observed right
What I prophesied in my books -did provide,
Less colors to capture the reality of this age,
For I foretold a socio-politic image,
Conservatively paradise-like when compared,
To the gruesomeness of “this brand new world.”

With opportunity and prowess for great strides in your hands,
Never before possible in human times,
See how you squander them all into malice,  
Insisting to become a brand new prison with more prison cells;
Where the ‘big brother’ controlling all from outside,
Is replaced by a democratic big brother in every one’s mind,
Advancing a franchise
That said: to atrocities on my brothers
I volunteer to remain blind.


July 11-2014


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