How Could You? - Jovon Uwimana

How we used to be!
We were good neighbours,
But I don’t know what we had become by April ‘94.

I never thought you would be that heartless,
It broke my heart, my life and my hope,
And I still feel like it happened just yesterday;
My scars are forever to be - they are a sign of remembrance.

We used to share almost everything,
And now where are my brothers?
My sisters begged not to be raped; where is my family?
How could you be so heartless?

Oh, God of Heaven!
Was the plane crash the real reason for my endless pain?

My heart was torn up,
I still feel the same pain,
And invisible tears will not cease rolling down my face;
I cry for them, I speak their language of innocence,
I will mourn them who did not choose to be beheaded with no crime.

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Jovon Uwimana (born 1993) Rwanda
Source: Telling Our Own Stories: Poems by Rwandan Youth 20 Years After the Genocide, by Youth Literacy Organisation, Lulu Press, 2014