I watch him pace in his bored-blue fatigues and
furrowed boots, a wild-haired stray for a shadow
the day about to set, he exhales
and the world is all fuzz and old songs
it begins and ends at the hills of Addis Ababa
and when he rests his AK on his shoulder,
weaves it into himself—skin, spine, steel
he’s a shepherd with his herding stick
the old tune still on his breath.
Liyou Libsekal is an Ethiopian poet living in Addis Ababa. She won the Brunel University African Poetry Prize (now the Brunel International African Poetry Prize) in 2014. Her chapbook, Bearing Heavy Things, was part of the 2015 African Poetry Book Fund’s New Generation African Poets series. Her work has appeared in Elsewhere Lit, Expound, Cordite Poetry Review, and other publications.
