The Independence Tree Poem by Alem Hailu Gabre Kristos

Like sands that ride a wind
Bullets all over strewed,
Dismembered limbs,
Soil mixed blood pools,
Bellies open ripped,
Visages smashed,
A decapitated head
On the forehead
A burrow that sustained,
A body half buried
Upside down turned
In a land, shell blasted
One leg a shoe deprived,
Blazed trees,
Charcoal burnt Tanks,
Two criss-cross piled up bodies,
Are the scenes
That sedated in my mind
With fire seared,
Once sent to a front
To compile a journalistic report
After a counter blow that devastate
Aggressors were dealt.

Then after when I see our flag
Flap up hoisted
Horizontally emblazoned
Green, Yellow and Red
Me it does remind
The independence tree
For millennia on end
That sprouted
Fertilized with martyr's blood!
And our sovereignty
That triumphed
Patriots' bone palisade!