In the dreamy hours
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MARTYRDOM A poem written following the announcement of Ibraham Afa’s death. By Bereket Habte Selassie In the dreamy hours Of the Opening Night The rote incantation Of ritual matters Was set aside. The news was broken. Did I hear it right? It was drowned in The burst of gun fire Re-ver-berating in the stillness of the night, the “funeral dirge” of the freedom fighter. The news was broken, the Congress shaken Ibrahim is gone! Ibrahim Afa, the name that struck their stony heart like a burning arrow, is now just a memory Ibrahim is gone we were suddenly told, and I turned to you, bereaved companions, for the salient emotion, of homage in grief and lachrymal commotion. But I saw instead Steely…. Stoic…. silence born of sacrifice, which has taken so much we have ceased to mourn or count our losses. Ibrahim is gone. and his martyrdom stirs in me a storm of painful memories; familiar faces flash back and forth in the film of my mind. Ibrahim, you’re gone and softly, softly do we weep for you; softly, so as not to hear our cries and expose ourselves. ‘Tis a martial custom sanctioned by necessity. The torrential tears contained in this ink flow from the spring of repressed sorrow. But the ink will dry and the tears give way to a joyful tomorrow. Ibrahim, you’re gone and yet you are here, you and the rest of our “living dead.” Our martyrs live; we see them, hear them, touch them daily as we tend our flowers of freedom and the growing Tree of Liberty, nurtured by their precious blood. (First published, March 1987, this poem was dedicated to Ibrahim’s widow, Nura Mohamed and their daughter, Sara Shop at mall.asmarino.com Always - by STEFANOS

Author not established. In the dreamy hours [editorial display title]. Date not established. EHREA archive: /library/documents/doc-ed47494624a3b42b23e20d58/
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