Warsan Shire is a Somali British writer and poet born in Nairobi and raised in London. She has written two chapbooks, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth and Her Blue Body. She was awarded the inaugural Brunel International African Poetry Prize and served as the first Young Poet Laureate of London. She is the youngest member of the Royal Society of Literature and is included in the Penguin Modern Poets series. Shire wrote the poetry for the Peabody Award-winning visual album Lemonade and the Disney film Black is King in collaboration with Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. She also wrote the short film Brave Girl Rising, highlighting the voices and faces of Somali girls in Africa’s largest refugee camp. Warsan Shire lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is her full-length debut poetry collection.
Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head 2023 Longlist
Selected poems
by Warsan Shire
We never unpacked,
dreaming in the wrong language,
carrying our mother’s fears in our feet—
if he raises his voice we will flee
if he looks bored we will pack our bags
unable to excise the refugee from our hearts,
unable to sleep through the night.
The refugee’s heart has six chambers.
In the first is your mother’s unpacked suitcase.
In the second, your father cries into his hands.
The third room is an immigration office,
your severed legs in the fourth,
in the fifth a uterus—yours?
The sixth opens with the right papers.
I can’t get the refugee out of my body,
I bolt my body whenever I get the chance.
How many pills does it take to fall asleep?
How many to meet the dead?
The refugee’s heart often grows
an outer layer. An assimilation.
It cocoons the organ. Those unable to grow the extra skin
die within the first six months in a host country.
At each and every checkpoint the refugee is asked
are you human?
The refugee is sure it’s still human but worries that overnight,
while it slept, there may have been a change in classification.
Copyright © 2022 by Warsan Shire, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head, Penguin Canada
Assimilation
The poem can start with him walking backwards into a room.
He takes off his jacket and sits down for the rest of his life,
that’s how we bring Dad back.
I can make the blood run back up my nose, ants rushing into a hole.
We grow into smaller bodies, my breasts disappear,
your cheeks soften, teeth sink back into gums.
I can make us loved, just say the word.
Give them stumps for hands if even once they touched us without consent,
I can write the poem and make it disappear.
Step-dad spits liquor back into glass,
Mum’s body rolls back up the stairs, the bone pops back into place,
maybe she keeps the baby.
Maybe we’re okay, kid?
I’ll rewrite this whole life and this time there’ll be so much love,
you won’t be able to see beyond it.
You won’t be able to see beyond it,
I’ll rewrite this whole life and this time there’ll be so much love.
Maybe we’re okay, kid,
maybe she keeps the baby.
Mum’s body rolls back up the stairs, the bone pops back into place,
Step-dad spits liquor back into glass.
I can write the poem and make it disappear,
give them stumps for hands if even once they touched us without consent,
I can make us loved, just say the word.
Copyright © 2022 by Warsan Shire, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head, Penguin Random House