Ethiopian Man

Once the wilderness loved me, rode my winds like a shaman’s drum. I roamed free through his caverns and intricate spaces; the more I discovered, the more there was to know. But I was lost in endless search for the heart of the wilderness. Once the forest loved me, and a panting Nyala calf quenched itself from my pool. The trees protected me from the torrent of rains – crystal beads replenished my water – and I nourished the roots. But the more the forest grew the more he demanded, until I had given all of me that there was to give. The night too loved me; peeled away my wild petals like a secret bursting in the uproar of roasting coffee beans and incense. But when night’s shade lifted, only morning’s haze and the dew of my tears were left behind. Then one day, golden rays just breaking the horizon, I peered through a window and to my joy, the most beautiful desert bloom! It was a child, the unexpected gift of the night, the forest, the wilderness to me.