My notebook by Moleskin and Japanese Pilot Pen

Go well with Taka’s coffee at his Paradocs Coffee Shop

quaintly positioned on my favorite block in LA

On this MLK Day

I sat there reading an article about Samya Stumo

Who sadly lost her life a little less than a year ago

aboard Ethiopia Airlines flight 302

My friend, Moirai, chose this article for me to read

She’s sometimes annoying,

but I accept her recommendations gleefully

I believe it was Moirai

How else would I choose which magazine to read?

They’re all atop that table, strewed

I first met Moirai in high school

Over the past 12 years

I have grown keenly aware of her presence

For her to push this article before me

Proves that finding it was no coincidence

What did Moirai want me to see?

It was that fateful month

March 2019

that things happened

All of them startling

March 1

The 123rd anniversary of the Battle of Adwa

March 10

The Ethiopian Airlines crash

March 31

Ermias Asghedom was assassinated

What a month for East Africa

Home of the biblical kingdom of Axum

Tragedy and triumph

Sadness and pride

That is the paradox I was destined to find at Paradocs coffee shop