As we stood at the top of the western hill

We watched the damn

Butterflies invade

There were painted in different colors

All looking beautiful

But that was just for a season

So little and yet so enough

But that passed with the winds

In the morning more and more came

They over flowed in our community

Haboured in our houses

It wasn’t long when them in a foreign land

Turned us into foreigners

Made us foreigners in our own states

The smiles that they brought

Turned into the tears of our hearts

The bright colours deemed the

Nimble of our joy

Now we can feel them running our emotions

Guiding  us on how to sneeze

They flap their wings in our brains

each morning we try to reach them,

to get rid of them

Their  shadows that made you laugh

Are the shadows that make them cry now

They are not the beautiful batterflies we used to know

The sweet little visitor we let into our

Living rooms

Is now the monster at the centre of our nightmare

Angel Phionah Ampurire is a law student at the University of Rwanda