When I Close My Eyes

Malaïka
2 min readAug 21, 2022
Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20 from Pixabay

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.

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