LIKE SUDAN
By Rushongoza Begumya

It is only when a bullet has been sent to collect you that you realise/How quickly it can all change/Humps can overnight transform into roadblocks/Fireworks can be usurped by machine gun fire/You are so naïve you forget that a band of men can be sent from the barracks to suppress your smile.


It is only when you see a child that received brain stem bullet for their birthday/That you realise how quickly it can all change/Hardware stores become armouries and slashers prefer oxygenated blood to dew/You bury using nothing but wildflowers/You forget that churches can change; blood is spilled at the altar the way you remember wine was previously poured/It doesn’t take much for dogs to become healthier than their masters/Before the same legs that were looking for a WIFI connection are looking for the border/Before home is nothing but a bad news/Before home is nothing but nothing and when you laughed about 

Sudan

And 

Mali


I laughed too. I laughed at how you don’t

Realise that peace is on this continent like an itchy toddler; never staying at one place for long.

Rushongoza Begumya is a Ugandan lawyer and poet. Born in Kampala in 1995, Rushongoza first started writing in primary school. He would fall out of love with the art form between 2009 and 2012, choosing to write, at first, plays and later novels. Rushongoza began writing poems again at the instigation of his friends and teachers in 2013. He began to write and perform more seriously in 2015, and released his debut collection How Will The Gun Bark If I Am Kissing Its Muzzle? In 2016. In 2020, Rushongoza released his second poetry collection Light.