A short article about the ceasefire in Ethiopia,
where hundreds of thousands
have already been killed and millions
displaced in a war that compares
with the crisis in the Ukraine.
 
I’m ashamed I lost sight of the war—
the American media, with its
focus on the white, developed world
and my memory, no doubt,
also tainted by prejudice.
 
As if knowing can even have an impact—
my actions of sending money, supplies,
letters to anyone who might protect
the innocent—may just be attempts
to allay my own helplessness.
 
In ancient civilizations, professional mourners
collected their tears in tiny glass vessels.
They were sometimes shaped like birds
so the vessels could accompany the deceased
and their spirits, circle the earth.