“I want humanity!” I want the little things you find shaming to do

The strangers said,

Imagine you gathered all the courage and walked up to me?

Me, that random girl sitting alone in the cafeteria
Me, that seemingly busy lady over a steaming cup of coffee at the cafe
Me, that swaggered teenager flocked by admirers, the envy of all

Imagine you just walked up to me and said “hi?”

Imagine you gathered all the empathy and walked up to me?

Me, the old lady selling cheap vegetables on the walk way
Me, the little child cold in the dark on the pavement
Me, the average unemployed youth sweeping the busy streets in the city

Imagine you just walked up to me and said a prayer with me?

Listen,

Sometimes I don’t want your loose change
I want friendship and a handkerchief
I want a sense of belonging
I want love and attention
I want for somebody to listen to my heart ache
I want somebody to offer me a comforting pat on the back
I want a warm smile
I want for you to tell me it will be okay
I want to share with you my tales of the lost battles and successful hunts
I want for my pain to be offered a crying shoulder even for just a bit
I want for genuineness, do not despise my position
I want words of hope

I want the little things you find shaming to do.

I WANT HUMANITY!

*********

[Courtesy of the author]

Link to the Italian translation

Mercy Agenorwot Consolate is known with the pseudonym Mercy Geno Apachi. She graduated from Uganda Christian University in 2018 with a Bachelor degree in Journalism, having already gained some experience working in radio stations. In 2017 she participated in the East African Students Film Festival held at Daystar University in Nairobi where she was first runner up in the Documentaries category with her story on Nodding Syndrome in Northern Uganda.

In 2019 she wrote her first play “Ojwiny” thanks to a theatre fellowship with Tebere Emerging Artists lab held in Uganda. As a poet, she performed twice with the poetry group Echo Minds: at the Uganda National Theatre with a show entitled “She 4 She”, about the woes of women, and at the German Institute, Goethe Zentrum, with “We Silently Hurt” about depression. As a solo spoken word artist, she is present on various prestigious platforms as Kwivuga, Ntebeza, Stubbon poetry, Ink-liners, Native voices, She is Hip Hop. She worked as a workshop facilitator at the 2019 Human Rights Conference.