Injera & Red Earth

[Verse 1]
Morning steam from the coffee tray
Incense curls in the quiet room
Grandma hums in Amharic
Names every saint on the walls

Taxi horns in a dusty jam
Goats drift slow by the open gate
Kids chase dreams with a plastic ball
Barefoot kings in the sun

[Chorus]
Ethiopia
I carry you
Like coffee stains on my hands
Ethiopia
You’re in my name
In every prayer I don’t understand
Ethiopia
I hear you call
From red earth roads to the blue
Ethiopia
This aching heart
Still beats its rhythm for you

[Verse 2]
Rain drums hard on the tin roof sheet
Muddy lanes turn to rivers fast
Mama laughs at the power cut
Lights a candle
Tells the past

Braids pulled tight on a Friday night
New white cloth for the holy day
Voices rise in the echoing hall
Old songs shaking the walls

[Chorus]

[Bridge]
I’ve crossed oceans in metal birds
Changed my tongue just to get by
But your spice lives on my window sill
Your flag in the back of my mind

I call home on a cracked screen glow
Hear the market in the line
You say
“Come when the teff fields grow”
I say
“Soon
” every time

[Chorus]