The beauty you hold is almost blinding
Yet all we hear about is your country fighting
We hear your unsettling crust -
Rupturing tenderly from beneath us
This war torn war lord country that has been stripped in the media
This just in two bombs have gone off in the schools cafeteria
Remember the beauty that has swept our nation, not the disruption and desiccation
See those illuminating colors in your traditional clothing
How cattle and goats stand in the streets roaming
Victimized Tranquilized Vandalized hypnotized
When will we realize?
Realize that there is hope in the eyes of our children
Realize that there is pride inside every women
How cliché is it to say that I don’t see Somalia that way
I see the modesty in the everyday mother -I see honesty in the prideful father
I see the media has portrayed you as pirates, terrorists, and divided
But I don’t see pirates, I see poets
I don’t see terrorists, I see environmentalists
We have been divided but only to be united again
Let us end the stereotypes-
Which has dragged Somalia through many fights
Where you were raised and where you were born- shouldn't matter anymore
And as K'naan said
"Until the lion learns to speak
The tales of hunting will be weak
My poetry hales within the streets
My poetry fails to be discrete
It travels across the earth and seas
From 'SOMALIA' to the West Indies
It knows no boundaries
No cheats
It studied in parts of Greece
Runtaa!
Hadii kale waxaan lahaa
Aaheey!"
Jawahir Ahmed
Copyright © 2013
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