Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Dear Somali

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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