SCREAM, BABY SCREAM ….
Screams, the baby’s screaming
Alarm and fear
Snatched from his mother
This frightening nightmare
Is his gift.
Sparks explode
But they’re not fireworks
A declaration
But not of love.
Soldiers parade
In camouflage uniforms
Like leopard’s skin
Clasping their guns
Wearing cruel magician helmets.
Rumbling echo of bombs and bullets
Smoke and smell of suffering.
Bleeding bodies
Dismembered limbs and
Scattered bones.
Crumbling walls
Burnt homes
Broken Bridges.
The rivers flow
Red
With the blood
Of innocent folk
Scream baby, scream!
No songs for you to hear
No child’s play for you to watch
Just scenes of hatred and revenge.
Scream! How cruel this world is.
Screams, the baby’s screaming!
Screams of horror
Helplessly frightened
Scream child, scream!
He’s only but seven and
He’s already seen death’s face
Anguished angel
Crying and screaming!
This is your business card
In a merciless world.
Elderly people and women
Babies on their backs and
Bundles in their hands
Running and fleeing
Shouting their anger
Drunken in screams.
Desperate mothers
Shattered dreams
In an unknown game.
Flowers buried
Among nameless bodies
In the common grave
No one will ever answer their cries for help!
Who will ever tell them why!
Scream baby, scream!
Taste the days to come
Years it will take to recover
From what you will never forget.
I SEEK SANCTUARY
Earth of sadness,
Tears and sorrow
Earth of suffering,
Famine, drought
Earth of idleness, obscurity.
Ignorance, illiteracy
Pretence and indifference
Earth of hatred,
War and fear
Earth of scorn and cruelty
Folly, abuse and arrogance
Earth of tyrants, dictators
Of depression and backwardness
Earth of torture
And oppression
Earth of falsehood
And corruption
Earth of jails
And death by shooting
Earth of murder
And death by hanging
Earth devoid of dignity
Courage, honour and pity
Earth of many sons who died
And never lived to see sunrise
None of us deserves your grace
For God, his angels, all our race
And nature’s spirits all around
Have long forsaken the world’s face.
From you, Earth, I seek sanctuary.
FOR THE WORLD’S WRETCHED
For those deprived of rights
Who live in anguish and in fright
Sharing no peace, no equality
Participation and democracy
Too far to know and see.
For those who’ve never encountered
Love
Brought up in war’s mentality
Who play with weapons thoughtlessly
Oppressed by ancient evil fate
And never-ending tribal hate.
For those who toil in backwardness
Whose only dreams are foes
And wickedness
Who live in ignorance and poverty
Unknown to them is liberty.
For those born under
Exploitation
In disgraceful life and humiliation
Unable to resist to such oppression.
For those whose life means
Misery
And deep inside by now bury
A life of dread, abuse and sorrow.
For those too helpless
To fight back
And only long for peace
And wish to laugh
For them, I dream a beam
Of light, one day
Trembling and weak
Will shine upon their cheek
Never to leave their souls again.
from “Akhria, I, A Uprooted Poet For Hunger”, 1996
Hamid Barole Abdu (born October 10, 1953 in Asmara) is an Eritrean writer.[1] After studying literature in Eritrea, he moved to Modena, Italy, in 1974, where he has worked as an intercultural expert and has published several articles about migration. His books include Eritrea: una cultura da salvare. Ufficio Stampa del Comune di Reggio Emilia, 1986;Akhria – io sradicato poeta per fame. Reggio Emilia, Libreria del Teatro, 1996,Sogni ed incubi di un clandestino. Udine, AIET, 2001,Seppellite la mia pelle in Africa. Modena, Artestampa, Il volo di Mohammed. Faenza (RA), Artestampa, 2009,Rinnoversi in segni … erranti. Faenza (RA), GraficLine, 2013,Poems across the pearl of Africa. Faenza (RA), GraficLine, 2015.
