When I close my eyes, I see nonna making tea,
My cousins picking berries,
And my parents laughing at a forgotten joke.
.
When I close my eyes, I see the mountains of Rwanda
Yet I see not with eyes but with blood.
In darkness,
I see my history,
I
see
my
now.
.
My dreams know the land and the people,
It knows the drumming that beats through each heart.
I dream of people dying and names I’ve never known,
But I know them,
My dreams and blood and breath know them.
.
You say I don’t belong,
And I say I don’t belong,
But I grieve what you grieve,
Our hearts both dance to the same rhythm of that land.
.
When I close my eyes, I see nonna making tea,
I see my cousins picking berries,
And my parents laughing at a forgotten joke.
