Ndagukumbuye (I miss you)
Always remember the Rwandan genocide: Apr 7, 1994 – Jul 15, 1994
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/jerrick/image/upload/d_642250b563292b35f27461a7.png,f_jpg,fl_progressive,q_auto,w_1024/665201e8f0f5b6001e9ab1f0.jpg)
writers eat me alive
they use me up like a wasted, slaughtered chicken
They use me up until a pretty picture is presented
Writers use me up like an artist’s toil
They wrap colors around a sea of blood
And Nina screams with fearful pain, “Mississippi Goddamn,” while Americans cry over their leftovers being not so sweet
agony in my blood, boiling over like the Red Sea, angry blood
Anger over your beautifully rendered art
As a babe falls over, a shot of darkness is captured on film,
You can feel the freeze of throbbing hell in the frame
The man as bad as the vulture that shot the dangerous dance of death
Does the picture bleed, as it cannot hear the cry
Cannot love
Cannot dream
Cannot be ripped away from a mother’s arms
I miss you, (but what did I miss?)
The pain you spilled over to
The agony you threw up as bad leftovers
The sadness of trauma that seethed like a crackling pan on the flame
The writer’s, they ate us all up inside
And said, “I miss you,”
With a snake tongue.
About the Creator
Melissa Ingoldsby
I am a published author on Patheos,
I am Bexley by Resurgence Novels
The Half Paper Moon on Golden Storyline Books for Kindle.
My novella The Job and Atonement will be published this year by JMS Books
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Comments (6)
My very first story ever published on Vocal was in regards to Rwanda in 1993. It is something we tend to push out of sight and mind. But it needs to be revisited from time to time.
Gosh, this was so devastating, intense and emotional! Loved your poem so much!
So raw. Bravo. 💫
The power of trauma is so strong. Phenomenal work encompassing emotion here.
A nice poem.
This is impressive...and I think Ms. Simone would have something to say.