One Poem by Manuela Palacios

The Princess of Abyssinia 

 

My mother is tall and slender 

like the obelisk of Aksum 

 

She comes to me with open arms 

like acacia branches in the savanna 

 

Her skin is white like the clouds 

swaddling the peak of Ras Dashen 

 

Her fine lips are red 

like firethorn berries 

 

You can swim in her eyes 

those calm waters of Lake Tana 

or glide across on a papyrus boat 

 

In the morning she sings 

a joyous lark  

 

Rolls her shoulders 

like an Eskista dancer

As the evening falls 

I hear her lullaby  

 

My Abyssinian princess 

Ivory smile   eyes of jet 

Glow of roasted coffee 

Your voice    a caress 

 

For she traversed lands and seas 

to reach the Horn of Africa 

in search for an Abyssinian princess 

to give me a home in Aughrim 

to look after me with motherly eyes.  

 

 

Manuela Palacios lectures on anglophone literature at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain). She has edited, translated and written about Irish, Galician and Arabic poetry. Some of her poems have appeared on online literary magazines such as Live Encounters and in anthologies such as 100 Words of Solitude (Rare Swan Press 2021).