Adapted from an original poem by Warsan Shire:
no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark.
you only run for the border
when you are with the whole village
running as well.
your neighbours running faster
than you, 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.
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no one would leave home unless home
chased you, fire under feet,
hot blood in your belly.
you have to understand,
no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land.
who would choose to spend days
and nights in the stomach of a truck
unless the miles travelled
meant something more than journey.
no one would choose to crawl under fences,
be beaten until your shadow leaves you,
raped, then drowned, forced to the bottom of
the boat, be sold, starved,
shot at the border like a sick animal,
be pitied, lose your name, lose your family,
make a refugee camp a home for a year or two or ten,
stripped and searched,
find prison everywhere
and if you survive and you are greeted on the other side
with go home, refugees
dirty immigrants, asylum seekers
sucking our country dry,
with your hands out
horribly strange, not ours –
look where we have ended up
the dirty looks in the street
are softer than a limb torn off,
the indignity we face every day
is more tender than the fourteen army men who
shot my mother
insults are easier to swallow
than rubble, than your child’s body in pieces –
wow, for now, forget about pride
survival is all that matters
i want to go home, but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home tells you to
leave everything and all behind,
even if it was human.
no one leaves home until home
is a voice in your ear saying
leave, leave, run,
NOW
Warsan Shire is a Somali British poet. Look up her original poem here. The above adapted version was read out by James Lochhead during Aliran’s 48th anniversary dinner in Penang on 22 February 2025.
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
