the bush is for the animals, not for the people

With lines from “These Women Are Bringing Some Peace to War-Stricken Congo” by Hugh Kinsella Cunningham, Camille Maubert, and Sifa Bahati, a Pulitzer Center reporting project.

 

Masumbuko, 1996

 

We don’t know it yet but

 

We will be in the hills of Ituri

longer than we will be alive

Taking dirt-packed roads to

churches, schools, football stadiums

With our oil-slick sleeves held

over the heads of cubs not yet

wolves and

 

We don’t know it yet but

 

To war relentlessly

is to love the wolves, among the

purple-streaked skies and

the fronds caressing them,

for we remember the months

when it wasn’t fruitless and 

blood-stained and

 

We don’t know it yet but

 

The wolves may have been

our sons and lovers but they

were never our friends

When we stop recognizing them

we will tell each other 

that we women can no longer 

keep our arms crossed and

 

We don’t know it yet but 

 

We will sleep on the floor

with no warmth curled at

our hips beneath the blankets

But our bodies will harden

Our skin will become

blue-tinged steel and

 

We don’t know it yet but

 

Our trembling voices are

ciphers to those wolves

in green and red, the ones 

we used to know, who live in forests—

For when their pupils fuse with 

the ones who birthed them 

men cannot refuse to listen and

 

We don’t know it yet but

 

One full moon we will place our

palms on the wolves’ foreheads

and say, gently, the bush is for the 

animals, not for the people

It will be calm that night

Women in white dresses will

walk these roads

 

The men will keep their promise