Mother's Admonition Poem by Tony Adah

My child do not shout
It is easier to be happy
Than to vent anger out
My child do not go to the market square
And say that your mother's soup
Is not tasteful enough.

If you leave your wears by the riverside
To wash yourself
Do not run after the mad man
Who comes to take them away
My child if your clothes are dirty
Quietly take them to Abeb and wash
Do not take them to katube.

Run errands for people
As swiftly as lightning
For in doing so you may eat
From the hand of a stingy man
My child do not shout
Or boast like the rooster
Who boasted that his coxcomb was fire
Still it was as cold as ice.