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Poems by Reesom Haile

Foreign Aid   Beg. I give. Beg! I give some more! So why insult me for giving?   You make me beg.

Voice   Speech online Can set you free It lights my voice On a screen like the sun   Voice. Voice! The net sets me free To think in poetry The sad will rejoice The weeping will laugh   In the news like food and drink In the dark with a candle to think   Sisters, brothers, citizens, drums! ezm! z-ezm! ezm! z-ezm! ebum! b-ebum! ebum! b-ebum! Voice! Voice!   We share the screen like the sun and our freedom of speech reads the poetry in thought

Your Head   From birth you need a door in your head to live. Mother, father, teacher, preacher, sister, brother, relations, friends or others of your kind may have the key or it may be lost. But they still have other ways To open the lock. Rancid butter rubbed on your skull may let the sunshine in. The phrase, "What are you, stupid? dumb?" might throw the bolt. A fly whisk works on the less fragile. A wooden spoon, a ruler or a good stick Does the trick on harder nuts and... Voila! An open mind!

Poet and scholar, Reesom Haile is the Eritrean author of Waza Ss Qumneger Ntensae Nager ("Tragicomedies for Resurrecting a Nation"), winner of the 1998 Raimok prize, Eritrea's highest award for literature. He is widely recognized for his revolutionary modernization of poetry in Tigrinya, one of Eritrea's main languages.

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