In the ancient land of Sheba,
a blood-soaked shamma lies upon the ground,
and Amharic tongues whisper of midnight encounters,
with a beast not of a Christian woman born.
Fear swells in the hearts of men,
in the villages near Lake Tana,
nomads no longer walk these dusty, lonely roads alone,
for they know that it hunts in the dead of night.
And in the distance,
echoes stir forth from ancient times,
of a hybrid of lion and man, stalking the shadows,
coming like the ghost and the darkness to devour the soul.
And for all the Coptic blessings said at the river’s edge,
it still haunts our evening prayers,
and for all goat sacrifices performed upon the Blue Nile’s muddy banks,
no peace can be found,
for only the obelisks of Aksum know solitude
as darkness approaches and the beast arises,
in this, the enchanted land of Nod.
Author’s note: This is a poem about a chupacabra-like creature that can be found in ancient Ethiopian myths. It may have been nothing more than a lion or panther stalking human prey. But who knows. |
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