Warsan Shire

Everything you did to me,
I remember.

I was an ugly child
You were an ugly child
We were ugly children.
—Hiromi Itō

Mama, I made it
out of your home
alive, raised by
the voices
in my head.

Are you there, God?
It’s me, the ugly one.

No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark

No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark. You only run for the border when you see the whole city running as well. The boy you went to school with, who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory, is holding a gun bigger than his body. You only leave home when home won’t let you stay.

I don’t recognize my own children
they speak and dream in the wrong language
as much as I understand
it may as well be the language of birds

Diets of excess, deep allegiance
to the adage “If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.”
And they laugh so hard they weep.

I can write the poem and make it disappear.

Daughter is synonymous with traitor,
their father mutters
in his sleep.