You can’t pour from an empty cup

You can’t pour from an empty cup
Same as you can’t hold a show in front of audience that’s asleep.
Same as you can’t play a song to a deaf man
Same as you can’t show a picture to a blind man
Same as you can’t speak a foreign language to one who only speaks his own.

Except that no one is really asleep, they’re just hoping that the show would come to an end if they gave it no attention.
Except that not all of them are deaf, they just choose to cover their ears, in hopes the noise would stop.
Except that not all of them are blind, they just choose to see the world in black and white when in reality it was drenched in red.
Except anyone would understand that, in every language No still means No!

“Not when she was the one asking for it”. Except she wasn’t.

She only decided that for a change, she would not listen to you when you…
Tell her what to wear
Tell her what to do with her hair
Tell her what to love, what to hate, what to feel.
She asked for it, only when your masculinity was threatened!

You can’t pour from an empty cup.
You can’t thrive from a community with a drained mind.
A community that has known hurt and was shattered to ruins.
A community that instead of building one another up, chooses to bring down their own.
So…
Just let her show go on until the final act and pour your soul in it, because so is she.
Let her sighs be heard and run after the noise, she’s tired this time.
Let her mistreatment bother your eye, when you try to blink it away. See the world for what it is.
Look for the red this time.
Let the child’s voice be heard, or the mothers entreaties, or a woman’s who’s been vocal about equality this whole time. Not superiority, equality!

You can’t pour from an empty cup.
Unless you let the cup be filled and the vines flourish even in ruins.

 

Author: Alba Çeku

 

This grant is supported by Austrian Development Agency