When the world went mad,
I permitted myself to go mad with it.
The world split in half, and
Raging in red, spilling its own blood,
I snuck underground instead.
I laughed yellow bubbles
like a hyena drunk on champagne.
I blew grass all day, up up up,
Till the gold pines flickered blue.
I bathed in the babbling river of hope,
kaleidoscope tears washing me clean.
I didn’t shave for weeks,
forgetting the sharp scrapes of shame.
I roamed the earth barefoot
rejecting the lessons of Eve.
I painted my face, tomatoes on my cheeks
As warm as my first and second birth
While the world went to war on the other side.
Mimi Mutesa is a writer, photographer, and recovering podcast producer, currently taking time off after having covered US politics in Washington DC. She now lives in Uganda with her husband, their new puppy Van Dam, and her countless potted plants.