ERITREA* MY ITHACA

( for Kassu Tsadik, a courageous Eritrean mother)

"Fix your eyes on a thousand thousand stars
in the black dome of sky,
stars that do not shine, but spit hell fire.
Look on the sweet earth,
parting, exploding,
earth our fathers worked with sweat.
Look, but don't walk on it;
it may become your gravesite tonight!

See the flowers, rose petals,
only thorns are left.
This is my song today, yes.

Think of those you love dearly,
now think of losing them, multiply this 4 million times
and surely your loss will have touched mine.
My name is Eritrea , my name is South Africa , Somalia ,
my name is America , before and after the European...
I am an Eritrean, though I was told by your country,
I am to be Ethiopian. I am sure you were not told of this.

The scars of many tears cover my face,
– my struggle an endless battle cry.
Was my beauty the cause of this, or the buried treasures within,
that attracted so many of them,
Italian, Turk, Arab and Greek? Too many to name
have come and ravished me. Taking, taking so much greed!

How I would prefer to speak to you
of our customs and dress.
The netsala women wear covers my head.
The table we set is seated with eight
– we share one plate.
Our land is also shared – divided by lot.
We are many kinds of people and speak many languages.

How I long to tell you of our cool highlands;
our capital – Asmara – as it was...;
our desert, touched by the Red Sea
the sea that led Moses to freedom,
shall see freedom in me,
Red, red now with the blood of my children.

Wars are interminable separations.
My children are all refugees or dead.
Who will pay this blood debt?
We are still fighting the wars of possession:
my gods, your gods, my land, your land, my race, your race.
We remain locked in the jaws of separation;
each regretful act justified by past dreadful deeds
ever recreating the patterning of pain.
We are not yet making unity; we are not yet making peace.
Each branch of learning remains at war
as we remain caught in contradictions.
Today I will call myself human being;
will you join me?
All of the colors make one light;
why stay in the dark?
The speed of light is very great.
Just imagine where we could be!

We each need the same basic things:
a blazing sun, a golden glow around everyone,
enough to live, enough to eat, to love.
There seem to be many paths before us,
but all the paths really divide into two.
Which will you take?
The glitter of fool's gold has been
a false light for far too long.”

* Eritrea a former Italian colony located in the horn of Africa fought a 30 year war for independence and still remains at risk.