Thursday, April 14
AFRICAN GRANDMOTHERS
Lacking the wings
of an eagle,
resigned, she admires
the distant moon,
cuddling cats and dogs
without asking them where
our neighbors have gone.
She spends all her time
at home and school, reading
or asking how the earth was made.
Unable to find
the stairs to the stars,
and seeing that God
won’t answer
her questions, Sara
wants me to give her
the names and
the surnames
of our African grandmothers,
whom Darwin declined
to mention in his book. (Ribka Sibhatu, translated from Italian and Amharic by André Naffis-Sahely and the author)