By Timothy Okurut
There was a time when every seat in the classroom had a familiar face. Friends laughed together, shared stories and believed those moments would last forever. However, as life unfolded, some classmates left school, others drifted apart, and some never returned.
In And Every Seat Had Its Sitter!, Timothy Okurut revisits his primary school memories from 2014. Through a deeply personal reflection on friendship, poverty, early marriage, loss and growing up, he captures the painful difference between the classroom they once shared and the empty seats left behind. Above all, the poem reminds us that behind every empty seat is a story worth remembering.
We were in primary four,
Two-zero-one-four,
Before life taught us
To wear wooden boots!
I remember;
We used to make jokes every night,
After classes, before the light
Went out at ten-forty.
Oh, how we used to laugh out loud!
And every seat had its sitter.
Every seat had its sitter
Before everyone started to grow
And stopped making jokes at night,
But remained staring at the ceiling
Till tears flowed out silently!
Every seat had its sitter
Before fees became too high
And Okwalinga had to drop out!
And Lucy was given out for “marriage.”
I miss when that room used to be full;
Now all there is are silhouettes
Of empty seats, seated in silence!
Now we only speak when we meet.
Sometimes it’s even hard to greet,
For you have drawn lines between us!
Others left us and never came back!
I remember Madam Asoga,
Oh, my language teacher!
Her seat remained empty,
And we never saw her again.
Rest in peace, Amuya, Deogracious and Oluk.
Peace be with you, Mathew, too.
And Teddy, that young lady,
Hanged herself, and all said
It was hunger and some spirits!
But trust me, a lot was going on,
Unsaid, unattended, and life;
Life was eating itself up!
Hey! They all fought
A good fight, I tell you!
But something I miss;
Those days when every seat had its sitter!
— Timothy Okurut
Our Ugandan Shakespere. Proud of how far you’ve come.
Bro this is really wonderful please continue ❣️❣️
RIP to the seats without sitters, dreams that never came true
Nice one
Wow
Wow this is a hauntingly beautiful piece it has me reflecting on my own primary mates and how far we have come with all the different ups and downs of life ,
What a beautiful peice of art
Woow! This a nice one, u have taken us back to where we cant forget, the pain there, the friends we have lost to different circumstances, this goes way dip that a peom, this is pure emotion, the things we couldnt speak out, the pain un said,the things we wish we could have changed but couldnt, the dreams lost, the futures we promised, and now we are here not knowin where some of them are, actual friends who dropped out i dont even kno where some of them are ,thou we ask around but cant reach them not because we cant but because we have no idea were they could be. This needs a stroy to be written too, we need to add more words
It’s a beautiful piece n reminds us of our seats back then thanks Tim