Addis Ababa, like the moon, is shrouded.
These different shrouds are part of nature
(just as is the corpse-draping kind)
nature-nature, in the hidden moon’s case,
and, in Addis Ababa’s, clouds of dust,
the blowback factor from normal economic growth
(or that’s what people--expert, lay-- say).
But, surely, shroud’s too harsh a word
(when the lunar shroud was us, Earth).
Let’s just call them – dusty city, eclipse—
“blankets.”
This is the second poem of two. Check out Two Shrouds part one here.
This poem first published in Red Ochre Lit, 2012.
Addis Ababa is the capital of Ethiopia.