"I had enough, say I,
I know for sure you are bootless spy,
Always keeping an eye
On everyone I let by,
And everyone I bid goodbye.
I had enough carrying you on my head
Only to eavesdrop.
To catch passionate words from the soft lips
Of friends on the steps that stop
Before in or out they hop.
Yes, I had enough you perching on my head
And this time I do hope
You comedown tumbling and drop dead."
A door querulously posited, to cut off

A relation over the years

Its sustenance has become pretty tough.

"Talk of a miscreant
You ought to be the last to count.
Collectively, you have us let down
By letting in the unknowns.
For a start, I, Window,
In this very room

I happened to be a frame

I have witnessed others' woe
And myself occasionally made to wallow
In the dirty morsels you swallow.
It is you who allow
Devious charters to come inside

And reside,
Be it for a long or a while

And have them executed their evil design,
To turn me blind.

So as through me

The world does not see what is committed behind.
Next time you face a problem,
Stop rushing others to blame.
You ought to secure and disguise your cleavage
That turns on and attract ramblers walking on the edge".

Window, likewise, appears determined

To terminate the marriage.

(Ethiopia talking to Eritrea)

Copyright Haileselassie Girmay
19/12/98.