My Heart 

Hard heart, let me in, please don’t shut me out,
I have no home, no family, no love, just you.

What will become of me without your pulse?
How can I sleep without the embers of your warmth.

It is not I you seek to punish, dear heart,
I have not betrayed or hurt you.

If I have, I was not aware; forgive me, 
Accept my foolishness and helplessness, 
I vow to hold and love you, with respect and kindness,
Open up my heart, what shall become of us without each other?

Thank you, kind heart, you have opened and taken me in,
Now I can see, I was the hard one, turned cruel and hurtful.

Let us embrace our co-existence, let us be strong for we are one,
How it hurts to remember separateness, oh how we both have suffered.

Kind heart, see the tears that flow down my face?
I have to stop them now so you and I can end the competitive race.

Blessed heart, you squeeze my chest when you cry,
My cheeks are wet so you can see I’m in this too,
Here I am holding you, oh how you tremble,
Let’s get over this now, my heart, let’s get over this now.
Hold me heart, as I hold you and find relationship also with other.

Quiet heart, why do you sleep in the middle of the day?
Now it’s time for you and me to be active, to work and play.
No more competition, we cannot go against one another,

Don’t mind the mindless things that people say, 
Let’s not forget every day is a new day.

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Nightingale was nicknamed Chuchu at birth. Her parents named her Venus after outer space became a significant world event in the late 1960s. She was admitted to an English nursery school in Addis Ababa, started keeping a diary in primary school, wrote English and Amharic short stories and poetry in high school, but destroyed them unsure of how they would be received in an uncertain and complex society. She worked for several charities, studied mass communications research, took up a career in international relations, and is now a freelance technical writer and translator. She loves writing fiction and poetry.

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