FORGIVE ME MY CHILDREN

Forgive me my children

For raping your future.

I have bequeathed to you

Dilapidated infrastructures.

The sorry state of the environment

By unfettered cutting of trees

Emitting tones of greenhouse gases.

I have violated the same sacred environment

Through my constant wars.

Forgive me my children

For shamelessly defiling and raping

The same principles that were

Fundamental to the change of this country.

I have defiled the most important

Baby-clause of term limits in the constitution.

I have failed to promote democracy

And the rule of law.

I have ushered in a culture of corruption

I have sought selfishness through

The use of my country’s resources

Without paying attention to the

Common good and social infrastructure.

Forgive me my children

For being such a bad elder.

My children remember this clearly;

No one is going to get you out of

The pit in which I have dropped you.

No one is going to untie your bootstraps.

I am no Moses to lead you

Out of the wilderness

Nor Noah to build you an ark.

I have entered a deep slumber

Of no change and I am at a point

Of no return; because I have been

Incapacitated by the no-change dictum

That has gone on for more than two decades.

Forgive me my children

For you are the ones to reboot the

Hibernating slumbering hard disk

Of this country.

I hand you the book and pen

For my time for writing is up.

I ask you to re-write in this book

And to write only what you would

Love to read later.

What I have written breaks my heart

At the slightest thought of opening a page

I burn with guilt and remorse

And I kindly ask you my children

To please forgive me.

~ Imelda Mirembe ~