Exile

Zenebe G. Tamirat

(11/21/03)

Alien! They say you are Alien! That has come from the unknown,

From heaven or hell or from the moon,

From Jupiter, Mars, or Saturn

A landless wanderer, a homeless Alien,

Alien! They say Alien!

Underrated! Underestimated, a prophet in exile!

A philosopher in exile, a God in exile!

Tell me Socrates! Tell me Jesus! Tell me Dante! Talk to me for a while!

How was life in exile?

Were you refugees? Or were you called “Alien?”

That came from a different planet beyond the earth;

Like a monster from a different universe?

Or were you called “refugees” who seek shelter from butchers at home

Men in danger, Men in a hazardous dome

I know you were torches of the world that illuminated its darkness,

But tell me were you undermined, were you called nuts?

When you show the world its bareness

Were you ignored? Were you neglected?

How were you treated?

When you were in exile

Though a philosopher, a poet and prophet low is the rank low is the file

In the “game of the reverse,” the erudite is ignorant

The ignorant, erudite a mixed up profile

So, I am knowledgeable; for, like Socrates at least I know that “I don’t know”

When in exile my outside is dim but I let my inside glow!

For; there will be a day when my inside becomes my outside: And when it does

Every one will know!