Tariku's Droplets

Coveting Apartheid!? By Tariku Abas Etenesh An African proverb says, “The greatest crime in a desert is to find water and keep silent about it.” I borrow its structure to say: the greatest crime a government can commit is to be given the opportunity to do great—and intentionally settle for the worst. For the past 25 years, the government of Ethiopia has been granted, by historical coincidence, rare opportunities to propel the country toward greatness. Yet it has chosen to squander them for the petty purpose of painting a portrait of grandeur for the ruling elite. These elites, who preach hatred as a foundation for nation-building, came to power without any intention of abandoning the politics of animosity. The inevitable result of their investment in hate has been a narcissistic appetite for adulation—of self, by self, and about self—while silencing all opposing voices. Over the years, they had the opportunity to undo the deliberate domination of key federal structures by a single...

I Asked February ........ I asked February, why take a color designation?  And it replied: So I could de-color the rest and mine,   Still curious, I remained;   Thus, the month whispered: History has optical distortion faculty,  Where colors are kept in captivity,  Deprived of their inherent veracity; Through a collective myth levying visual sanction, Forcing each hue and diction into a one-eyed vision; and lamenting:  The journey from cotton-to-gold-to-steel, Was a white-hued burden,  No red –black- brown in between; And this, history does so,  Eclipsing the times of creation of colors:  When cotton needed soaking in red to became white, And white needed baptism in black to become golden;  And golden needed stolen sweat to harden into steel;    Giving birth to a lavish great dream; Espoused in the plantation spirituals, And the slave auction stall vile transactions,...

The silent voice of life chimes through time and space, Whose echo like an eternal sonnet rhymes, With terrains of doubt and dins of feat; And reigns over oceans of meanings with nuanced isles, Whose rules as humble maxim relate: I am here to stay ; Thus, make a wise take of yourself in my realm, While you are here but a delicate wanderer, For I am solemn to stay through you or without; As I did, Past the blaze of randomness eons passed, Past the debris of bodies of mighty-build, Of the mammoth and dinosaur, I take no chance to replicate: Through forms, types and nature- disregard, In the air, thoughts and knacks- I reside; In every act of seeking permanence; In the question, doubt, answer, and conviction, In every cave-painting, tablet, scroll, book, chip, and bio-chip, In the whining, roaring, chirping, bleating, and growling; In every hello, blip, and clang, In every alas- Oh- Ouch- Yes- H...

Dust-Volcano-Star (Tariku Abas Etenesh) The dust particle whispered to the volcano "looks how I lie;" You, the volcano, no less wondrous than I, Spurring the molten synaptic fire of planet earth, Heralding a deep connect, disconnect, elation and sigh; Stand might-gilded as the fervor of reality yearning for paradise, Solid flowing in rivers of reminiscence, Fluid hardening in neural lee-ways, Nothingness leaping to the might of being, Emptying a pent-up but agile drive into the unknown and mysterious, Rippling like words of a certain messiah of the black hole, Leaping valor of assurance thrusting cadence of time and forms, Out of the dictates of cherished limitations guise as a civilization, Out of the fur garbs of layered worship shielding frostbites of invention, Out of the stability resting on perpetual chaos of inaction, Out of the metallic brain negating an elastic cry of evolution, Out of the currency heart beating dimes stealing...