Sometimes
The bravest thing you can do
Is hide, run away, remain unseen
Because it is all you have strength for…
Because maybe YOU must
Live to tell the tale
Of the fear
Of how it seeped in
Took over
Took over everything
Sometimes
The bravest thing you can do
Is watch the brave stand up and say no
Watch evil strangle life
Out of the brave
Choke them to silence
While you retreat
To the shadows and say
‘What can I do?’
But the time will come
When you can no longer
Be brave in that way
When your silence no longer
Gives you peace
When being unseen no longer protects you
Or your own
When you realize
That this,
this thing,
That is being broken, spat on, beaten, pissed on, shat on
Is the most precious
Thing.
That if you do nothing,
Those you are trying to
Protect,
Your loved ones,
Will slowly become
The thing that
Makes you want to hide;
Will become that which
Makes you freeze;
Will become lost
To you,
Forever.
Sometimes
The bravest thing
You can do
Is do a little every day
Is say hello. I see you
Is to say Yes I do care,
Is say NO because it’s wrong
Is to forgive yourself and start again
Sometimes
the bravest thing
Is to refuse to soil your hands
Or to pitch in and do the work
Is to admit your wrong doing
Is to say sorry
Is to learn to stand up
Sometimes
The bravest thing to do
Is the scariest thing
Not to do.
©namutebikabalikagwa
Nairobi, September, 2017
namutebikabalikagwa 