Poetry in a Global Box: Jamhuri ya Uganda (Republic of Uganda)

Susan N. Kiguli

ISBN: 9970901001

I am tired of talking in metaphors

I will talk plainly

Because I am moved to abandon riddles.

I will tell you how we held our heads

In our hands

Because the owl hooted throughout the night

And the dogs howled as if in mourning:

We awaited bad news

We received it

Our mother blinded in one eye

Crippled in the right leg

Because she did not vote

Her husband‘s candidate.

I will remind you

Of the time the peeled plantains

Stood upright in the cooking pot

We slaughtered a cock

Anticipating an important visitor

We got her:

Our daughter – pieces of flesh in a sack –

Our present from her husband.

No, I will not use images

I will just talk to you:

I do not fight to take your place

Or constantly wave my fist in your face.

I refuse to argue about

Your „manly pact“

With my father –

Buying me for a bag of potatoes and pepper.

All I want

Is to stop denying Me

My presence needs no metaphors,

I am here

Just as you are.

I am not a machine

For you to dismantle whenever you whim

I demand for my human dignity.

Susan N. Kiguli