The Bravery Of Immaculle Poem by Jim Yerman

I just finished a sadly wonderful book about a women who went through hell
When she survived the genocide in Rwanda...it’s entitled Left To Tell.

Her name is Immaculee Ilibagiza, she survived while those around her fell
Including her mother, father and two brothers making her the one left to tell.

It’s a story of faith and endurance, how in the midst of this massacre she survived
While outside, along with her family,800,000 men, women and children died.

They died because they were Tutsi which meant in Rwanda they hadn’t much worth
As the Hutus made it their mission to wipe Tutsis off the face of this Earth.

The women were raped; the men and children were mocked, spit on and then beat.
All of them shot or hacked up with machetes then left to rot in the street.

No Tutsi was safe; all were hunted down while being called cockroaches and snakes
All brutally and impassively murdered...no time for proper funerals or wakes.

This story is unimaginable in its horror, not only that so many people are gone
But that the rest of the world stood by callously and let this slaughter go on.

But the killing does not make this story amazing nor the fact that all of it’s true
It’s what Immacculee decided to do once all the killing was through.

When brought face to face with the man responsible for her family’s and so many deaths
Immaculee trembled, slowly walked up to him, then quietly took a deep breath.

If she was ever to live on after this carnage, she knew what she had to do
So she exhaled, stood up strong and proud and said to his face, I forgive you.

That’s not to say she wasn’t angry or wished her family’s life for his she could swap
But she knew forgiveness and forgiveness alone is the only way that the killing would stop.

An eye for an eye makes everyone blind, at least that’s what Gandhi would say
Oh how I wish we all had the courage to exhibit the bravery of Immaculee.