A flower sprouts
Out of red paint,
Rinses its petals in rain:
You cannot colour me forever.
Kagame atop the hills blows
His horn,
And the echoes melt the machetes
& the barricades men built with the blades
Of their hurts,
Then he bid national dreams
Green all in the belly of Kigali.

Marial Awendit a.k.a. James Marial Matueny Majak, is a SouthHe is the author of several poetry collections, including “The Night Does Not Drown Us” (Babishai-Niwe Poetry Foundation, 2022), “Keeping the Sun Secret” (2021), “Whispers over a Brewing Dawn” (2022), “The Nilotic Coddiwomple” (2024), and “Who Told You to Be God?” (2024). Marial won the South Sudan Youth Talent Award for Best Poet (2016), the Babishai-Niwe Poetry Award for African Poets (2018), and the African Writers Award for Poetry (2023).