Mother asks if I can go and stay with my uncle,
I know widows swallow responsibilities that their husbands died from and sometimes their eyes hold death/but they know they are the only hope;
I want to tell her no/I want to tell her guys are not being trusted/that sometimes blood becomes the thing that takes life from you
I crawl out of my skin and put my thoughts into words (in my notebook that stays under my bed)
What’s the world without a mother/how not to show a man that you love him/how do we cut blood ties/how to deal with men who come in the night/synonym for uncle/how to kill a man who touches you in places mother warned you about/how to fake my own death or make it real.
I don’t want to go…
Charlotte Akello is a Ugandan poet and writer. She was shortlisted for Babishai Haiku poetry award in 2017, Writivism award for fiction in 2018 and Brigitte Poirson poetry award in April, 2019. She has been published in print in Odokonyero by Writivism, Wondering and wandering of hearts by Femrite, Streetlights at noon eclipse by Lantern meet of poets. Her works have also appeared online in Kalahari Review, Praxis magazine and writer’s space Africa among others. She is currently a student of medicine and surgery at Makerere University, Uganda and blogs at charlotteakello.wordpress.com
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