The New Edition

Hooray! Hooray! The old book is republished

To the delight of the readers of the bygone master,

Nonetheless distinguished,

And to the dismay of others,

Who wanted it perished.

Neglected for several decades

To a point of decay,

No one dreamt it would make a comeback,

And see the light of the day.

The old book is one of its kind,

From politic to social fabric,

From general to peculiar topics,

Look for any thing, and you will find.

Yes! The old book is resilient

It did put up a fierce fight,

Repelled all frantic attempts

To suppress its message,

From being read by all people, of all ages

Transcending time passage.

From the depth of the sea,

Where once it was buried,

In a metal box, chained

To a heavy weight,

With a clear intent,

To drown it and keep it they’re buried.

And its elements,

In a saltwater to disintegrate.

But, alas, that evil design,

Crafted the old book to drown

Was in vein;

For the old book is resilient,

Full of life and strength,

And to the dismay of the villain,

It defied gravity, and

From the depth of the sea,

Afloat to the surface,

It did manage,

Once again to deliver its message.

However, to its horror,

Shortly after,

The Old Book was recaptured.

It was then put under arrest,

In a dungeon all round fenced with barbed wire.

Then six months later,

After being locked in pest infected, dark

God forsaken shelter,

It was escorted by the henchmen,

Of the tyrant in power,

To a place that seemed to be constantly in anger.

The Old Book was then thrown to the epicentre,

Of the glowing molten lava, disgorging red hot and blue fire,

To be consumed and devour, and never

Again to reappear forever.

There was a spread of rumours,

That the Old Book was indeed lost forever.

No chance for it to be recovered.

Feeling it was the end

The Book turned to charcoal dust and blown,

And the remains washed away by torrential rain,

A sigh of relief descended in to the evil tyrant’s brain.

Yes a genuine sigh of relief,

In the acolyte’s belief,

A day of jubilation for the newly succeeding khaliff.

However, things turned rather front to back

And in the midst of burning rocks,

Gashing vapour,

Meandering molten lava

Which resembles re hot boiling blood,

Without the styptic chemistry to help it clot,

Dissolving everything that stand in its front,

With no trace to recant;

There stood the Old Book

In defence of the mighty volcanic stroke,

Rock burning rocks,

Contrary to logic,

If anything, the Old Book came out hard and pure,

Polished by molten fire

Its contents now appeared brighter,

Weak eyesights could now decipher.

Surviving a series of deadly assaults was magic,

The superstitious could now attribute to the power of the Book.

However, all said, there were those eager to witness

The Old Book was showing signs of weakness,

Its parchment page after page

Bore marks of fatigue and old age.

Thank God! Had it not been for the new edition

It was clear; the Old book’s contents were on the verge of extinction.

The new edition is light

With dazzling colours to attract the eyes,

Visible and easy to read elements

Without loosing the Old Book’s trait.

Now, this time where would they go,

And what is to come of the tyrant,

The acolytes especially the intolerant?

The message of the book they hate

Has found its way in to the mind of many straight.

Copyright Haileselassie Girmay

Nov. 9. 1996