This painting and the following poem were both inspired by a true story of a little four year old girl whose parents were slaughtered during the massacres in Rwanda. She was left for dead but survived. The poem came first and inspired the painting.

Rwanda
I stopped a machete with my head
As it was quietly passing by.
I got chopped with a machete in my face;
I’m only four, and I don’t know why.

I saw the men running –
Dust and shouting.
I thought I was dreaming,
Screaming

I closed my eyes tight,
Squeezing Mommy’s hand.
I heard something drop.
No sound, she fell to the ground.

So, I’m standing there holding Mommy’s hand.
Standing, standing in a pool of red,
Staring at her body on the ground.
Then a machete hit me in the head.

It hit me twice; then once in the face.
A man with a camera asks me, “Why?”.
“For nothing, for nothing they killed my Mommy, Daddy, and I.
For nothing they killed us,” my reply.
The man tells me I’m still alive.
Oh, Am I?