Neither A Poet Nor A Storyteller - A Poem or thinking aloud!

I posted the words below on Facebook on 28 December 2017. It was almost one year before the publication of my debut novel titled HEARTS AMONG OURSELVES, and the publication of a dozen poems, including those about my personal and family experiences and some fictional story poems.

As I finalize another novel I have been writing for months, I am glad to remind myself why I am a writer.

Neither A Poet Nor A Storyteller

I am neither a poet nor a storyteller,
I wish I had grown to be one, but I guess it’s too late.
How shall I tell their story? How shall I sing their songs?
I will write about their thin bodies and their crying souls.
I will write it the way it’s crafted in my mind.
I will not follow any rules.

I want to call upon the thinkers and the philosophers,
I want to call upon the poets and prophets;
I want to call upon the singers and the painters;
I want to call upon the writers and the novelists,
Come and tell their stories, come and sing their songs,
Their souls cry for justice.

The land has been captivated by the hungry for power,
The land has been captivated by the hungry for money,
Skyscrapers are growing when the daughters cry in huts,
Chicken wings are trading, when kids long for potatoes,
They sing their songs when boys drum with empty stomachs,
Who shall tell their story?

The father was assassinated, the uncle was jailed,
The mother died of AIDS, the sister was taken abroad,
They went to the Fund, they didn’t have survivor papers,
They went to Gakinjiro, they didn’t have stands,
They went to the streets, they were chased away,
Who shall wipe their tears?

Time has come for the thinker to take her place,
Time has come for the philosopher to spread wisdom,
Time has come for the prophet to warn the nation,
Time has come for the poet to say it with freedom.
Weapons do not talk, words do not fight,
What they long for is peace.

My name is Umwagarwa
I am not a poet, I am a girl hungry for peace in the world.

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