January 6th, I can still remember the hate in their fingers when they wore this badge of honor on me- it was a brutal merit, a verdict of unconscious merriment and injustice. Burned bridges, soul injured- they left me to unpack with eye lid and bruised kneecap, couldn’t turn back because they burned down my bridge. Do I really deserve this golden badge of honor?
January 6th, Boom Boom 💥everywhere like my heart beat their guns bleat but with a different language of I hate you, they break me. Crave to put forth my future at stake- I could have been a basketball player, an instrumentalist, a footballer, an engineer and many more.They literally killed my dreams.
Tick tick⏱ every night time whispered in my ears, telling me not to worry because he is the best doctor “I heal and Gods time is the best,” .Thus, I beg to ask the question- do I really deserve this golden badge of honor?
January 6th, I was only 3 years old when they came . Nothing to bargain for but a will so free.They refused to see the innocence in me, they let my blood be the signature to a treaty between chaos and solidarity. A solidarity to peace ,they say, a peace I cannot find . Do I really deserve this golden badge of honor?
January 6th, an event that left a mark on the forehead of our nation, exposed this beautiful country and it’s people to the invasion of corrupt minds. Corrupt men with gifts of a wordsmith, architects to our blood spills and when it comes to giving, they are stingy as iron-smiths. I have blatantly refused to to accept anything they say to weigh me down. It must be fate- I convince myself. I have this to say -when our fate meets destiny ,we sometimes feel the entire world must be wrong and it wasn’t our time but we must not let these stereotypes leads our minds into oceans of frustration, but rather we must have the courage to mix anger with sympathy, hate with compassion, and above all we must love .
Do I really deserve this golden badge of honor?
Abass Sesay is a Final Year Student at the Department of Sociology & Social Work at the Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, and a Disability Advocate.