The Easter That Monday

I would like to tell you a story
A story of a man I know
A friend I know
A mentor I know
I want to tell you that story
The story which began
The Easter that Monday.

The Easter that Monday
Was actually Easter Monday
April 13 2020
Yes, infamous year of the covid
The evening of Easter Monday
My phone rang
Nicholas had rung
Delivering the sad news
I felt my stomach wrung
I wonder why it was that day
The Easter that Monday.

The Easter that Monday
My good friend was hounded
To imagine it was him –
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija
I needed lenses for my brain
For when I again saw him
I couldn’t and maybe never
Believe my eyes it was him
Believe it had happened
The Easter that Monday.

The Easter that Monday
Was a gloomy day
And so was the year of days
Following that day
Going to bed
And waking up
To the fact of
His torture, his trauma
To the fact of
His family’s sorrow
His children’s query
His wife’s pain
Every day passed like
The Easter that Monday.

The Easter that Monday
I WhatsApped my friends
The big question
“What shall we do?”
Covid times, lockdown…
What could we do?
We took to social media
Ranting on WTF
‘Keyboard activist!’
A guy mocked me
It isn’t funny – I replied
We contacted journalists
Publicised the events
We made much noise
The international community
Joined and shouted too
And the whole world knew
The Easter that Monday.

The Easter that Monday
Kayibanda ordered
The arrest of Kakwenza
Author of
The Greedy Barbarian
That tells of a bright future
Of the time of him-after
Of the country of Kalenga
And so the book sold
More, more and more
And the masses envisioned
This bright future
More, more and more
Thanks to the events
The Easter that Monday.
©Atwine Mugisha