My Name

In your mouth , my name sounds
ugly
Spoken with a twisted face and squinted eyes
Tasting foreign and frightening on your Anglo-Saxon tongue
you stumble
Over it and wonder where such a strange name came from
It's a scary name, you think, as sweat
Beads on your forehead like oil droplets in a glass of
water
Ethiopia?
Ethiopia.
Some little place in Africa you never cared to learn of.
My name is Ethiopia
I am my name
A foreign, scary place
I am my name
I am Ethiopia