A disturbing, but authentic, poem

Machete

in 1994
the beast awoke
and again cast his eye
to Africa

Rwanda was ripe
densely populated
a nation that is blessed with
a luscious natural beauty

the signal was murder
President Habyarimana
shot down by rockets
from the sky above Kigali

Cyprien Nataryamir
Leader of Burundi
assassinated also
in the opening atrocity

Agathe Uwiligiyamana
Rwandan Prime Minister
planned to make a broadcast
appealing for calm

she was shot in Kigali
along with her husband
her ten U.N. bodyguards
died by machete

a highly efficient
implement for cutting
selling very cheaply
a weapon for two dollars

the ten Belgian peace-keepers
were hacked in the tendons
then castrated
and finally choked

Kigali exploded
a terrible orgy
rape and mutilation
neighbour slaying neighbour

in a rural village
a young man tried to stop them
he was hacked to pieces
death by machete

members of the death squad
in certain cases
soon gained a taste for
the blood of cockroaches

in Butare
Queen Gicanda
executed
behind the museum

we watched television
death-toll in Rwanda
our leaders ignored it
genocide

last night I had a vision
a boy from Rwanda
I heard him speak his last words
“Please not my sister”

he said he had a message
he wants us to listen

the beast has awoken
and the sunlight glistens
on the blade of his machete

2 Likes

Sounds like somthing fromthe move hotel rowanda.