Dust Devil

He is ubiquitous,

At the same time,

His conspicuous presence,

Can be felt in one and all places.

He commands unbridled respect,

Be it out of reverence or otherwise.

There is no single element,

Organic or ossified,

That has not knelt,

Or bent its back,

Down from the belt,

To grovel and prostrate,

And prey to be part of a communion,

when deliverance is forbearance and grace,

While with the same breath prays to be spared

When rages and wrath,

Are showered on the face of the earth.

He rules with iron fist,

Omnipotent as he is-

He perambulates,

In the colonnaded boulevards,

Dragging all sorts of trinkets,

And blowing off habiliments of pulchritude,

Ever conscious of what they are made of.

You can put dust devil to test,

He is fast,

And for speed, the African cheetah is a gastropod,

Limping on one and half feet.

He swishes and swirls,

Down the valleys, he slithers,

In search of yet more invisible devils,

To share the spoils from the city it had managed to wangle.

Copyright Haileselassie Girmay

28/2/98