{"id":115,"date":"2016-09-16T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.shortstorydayafrica.org\/?p=115"},"modified":"2016-09-16T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T13:00:00","slug":"the-weekendread-in-2065-a-poem-by-peter-kagayi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shortstorydayafrica.org\/?p=115","title":{"rendered":"The #WeekendRead. In 2065 \u2013 A Poem by Peter Kagayi"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\n

Peter Kagayi<\/a> and his publisher, Nyana Kakoma<\/a>, have both recently been the subjects of our #WriterWednesday feature. This weekend, inspire yourself with  Peter’s poetry. Peter’s collection, The Headline That Morning<\/a>, is available in print and audio from So Many Stories.<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/h3>\n

IN 2065<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Nothing will have changed that much,<\/p>\n

Except I will be over 70 years<\/p>\n

The roads will be the same<\/p>\n

The politics will be the same<\/p>\n

Kampala will be the same<\/p>\n

In 2065 nothing will have changed that much,<\/p>\n

Except I will be over 70 years<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I will go to Mulago to cure my rheumatism<\/p>\n

And the doctors will say there is no cure<\/p>\n

And the boda- boda man at the stage<\/p>\n

Will recommend to me a West-Nile witch doctor<\/p>\n

And I will go to my grandson\u2019s school like my grand-father did<\/p>\n

And I will be turned away, for old age will be something forbidden.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The president will be the president we have today,<\/p>\n

And in a wheel chair he will give the Nation Address<\/p>\n

Only his son, then a field Marshall, will read it on his behalf<\/p>\n

And he will talk on his behalf<\/p>\n

And he will rule on his behalf<\/p>\n

In 2065, nothing will have changed that much,<\/p>\n

Except I will be over 70 years.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And Makerere will be on strike and Major- General \u2018Something\u2019<\/p>\n

Will order open-fire on the students<\/p>\n

Because their demand for fried beans<\/p>\n

Will be a threat to the security of the State.<\/p>\n

And U.R.A will be taxing the air we breathe,<\/p>\n

The many times couples kiss,<\/p>\n

The fart we excrete,<\/p>\n

The words we speak<\/p>\n

And the way we die<\/p>\n

And will determine those who go to heaven<\/p>\n

And those to hell<\/p>\n

And tax their corpses differently<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2065 nothing will have changed that much,<\/p>\n

Except I will be over 70 years,<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And teachers will be begging on the streets to feed their families<\/p>\n

Their wives will sleep with tourists to make a decent living<\/p>\n

The syllabus will be the same shadow of what colonialists left behind<\/p>\n

With systems too archaic and too alien to offer anything essential<\/p>\n

And the students will remain cabbages and potatoes<\/p>\n

And the ratio of the jobless to the job-hopeful<\/p>\n

Will remain nine to one<\/p>\n

And like that life will move on,<\/p>\n

And like that nothing will change.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2065 children of eight will be using contraceptives<\/p>\n

Children of eight will be going to night clubs<\/p>\n

In 2065 children will not be children<\/p>\n

They will be eating fellow children for breakfast and for break at school<\/p>\n

And they will not wash their hands and will offer you a hand-shake.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And we will be the people in that future<\/p>\n

Built from a present that promises not much<\/p>\n

Except ageing<\/p>\n

We will be there hoping to die soon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Kagayi and his publisher, Nyana Kakoma, have both recently been the subjects of our #WriterWednesday feature. This weekend, inspire yourself with  Peter’s poetry. Peter’s collection, The Headline That Morning, is available in print and audio from So Many Stories. \u00a0 IN 2065 Nothing will have changed that much, Except I will be over 70 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[135,133,98,134,136],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekend-read","tag-nyana-kakoma","tag-peter-kagayi","tag-poetry","tag-sooo-many-stories","tag-ugandan-poetry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shortstorydayafrica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shortstorydayafrica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shortstorydayafrica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shortstorydayafrica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shortstorydayafrica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shortstorydayafrica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shortstorydayafrica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shortstorydayafrica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shortstorydayafrica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}