Tyranny Is Ethiopian: A Poem
Tyranny is Ethiopian
A perennial anomie
Deeply embedded
In the architecture
And political culture
Of the prison house of nations.
Tyranny is Ethiopian.
Every aspiring despot
Inherits a predatory throne
Undergirded by fraud, violence, bigotry
Predation and blood-drenched narratives
To author and unleash
His own signature terror regime.
Mad Mengistu
had his multi-purpose Red Terror campaign
Coupled with endless bloody wars.
Mercurial Meles
Crafted his own Crimson Terror regime
Complete with brand new implements
And terminology of Terror
And savagely unleashed it
Across the vast plains of the Ogaden.
Who can forget
The notorious Jail Ogaden?
With its macabre methods
Of torture, mass humiliation, and mass slaughter.
Delusional Abiy
Lashes out at Oromia
With his murderous Rose Terror
Modeled on the mayhem in the Ogaden.
Majestic landscapes
Blossom in gore and despair.
Tyranny is Ethiopian.
A lethal affliction
Blessed with a mighty rage
That consumes
The tyrant and all the people
Of his accursed dominion.
