Warsan Shire

Conversations About Home (at the Deportation Centre)

Warsan Shire
Well, I think home spat me out, the blackouts and curfews like tongue against loose tooth. God, do you know how difficult it is, to talk about the day your own city dragged you by the hair, past the old prison, past the school … Read More →

In love and in War

Warsan Shire
To my daughter I will say, ‘when the men come, set yourself on fire’. Read More →

Things we had lost in the summer

Warsan Shire
The summer my cousins return from Nairobi, we sit in a circle by the oak tree in my aunt’s garden. They look older. Amel’s hardened nipples push through the paisley of her blouse, minarets calling men to worship. When they left, I … Read More →

Ugly

Warsan Shire
Your daughter is ugly. She knows loss intimately, carries whole cities in her belly. As a child, relatives wouldn’t hold her. She was splintered wood and sea water. They said she reminded them of the war. On her fifteenth … Read More →