Go to Sleep My Dream

The Sun has set,
And the birds have gone to nest
It is time you  rest.

Go to sleep! Sweet dream
Night has just begun
It is a long way to dawn.

Stay asleep Sweet dream
Do not wake up yet,
Sleep, sound sleep
It is not yet day time
Darkness is still supreme
Out there, Reality and Misery
Are stalking. And you do not want
To be their victim.

Sleep  safe my dream
Do not roll over the edge
And wreck you neck.

The last thing I want
Is a dream that does not walk.
In any case, come dawn,
Do not rush to your feet,
Stay in bed,

Until I go out and fetch
The things you needed to be fed,
If only I could muster the energy needed.

Even that task accomplished,

Day, as is night, indeed is cruel,

When you think you are safe,

Drought strikes where once plants grow fair.

Add to this, the sky above and the ground below tremor,

Either fire erupts from the womb of the Earth,

Or Mortars and artillery shells incessantly murmur,

Where once mills turned granules to flours.

So stay asleep my dear dream,

It makes no different be it night or daytime.

Copyright Haileselassie Girmay
14/1/200.