Give Me Back My Home ~~by Athiei Poem by Monyping Marial Buot

It was 2011, free at last
Guns were down, commenced a new vision
Wounds healing, forgiving the past
I could hear them say no to division
We are one, and there she was!
My South Sudan in maleficence
Heroes fought so I could have a home
Blessed be they that bled so I could have a name
They that saved me from the needless roam
My intrepid fathers overcame

When 2013 came, terror transpired
Manslaughter, more guns fired
I was plundered of all prospects by more bloodshed.
Hopeless citizens scattered into bushes
Homeless, hungry, thirsty and lost
I could remember the ruins
The destruction and decay
The desolation and downfall
The perdition and subversion
The lapse and collapse
The prostration and dilapidation
Of my habitation.

2015, peace was signed and spark of hope restored
I long to revert for I missed my domicile
A new beginning despite the blood poured
Home never ceases being so
But the bliss did not last long.

Before we knew, it was 2016.
The guns shots sounded even more horrific
This time I didn't want to run away from home
But I neither owned a gun nor did I know how it's used.
The assassins searched houses,
Tantalized and killed the innocent
And again I lost my home.

Render the place I call home,
The name refugee imprints me not,
Let me return to the land of my ancestors
To the place my father died combatting for
Recur what is rightfully mine
For you can't surmise the pain my guardians forwent

Give me back my home
So I can nurse my wounds
Mourn for my uncles and loves ones
Marry and replace some lives lost
Grow my crops and sell surplus
To learn the law of governance
Then die in peace.

This poem is dedicated to all those, most affected by civil war and those in refugee camps.