Rites of Escapism

There’s something so fascinating about bathroom lights at night, while ancient frankincense is burning, like soothing air, finding its way back home

The way spacious mood lifts life in stars closer to you; after a long relaxing bath

You feel empowered again

Hidden in this sacred space

A bit of self-love won’t hurt your selfless character

Escaping

Forever escaping

Reshaping your innermost precious

The inner child you lost in May

Is forever escaping

Slowly floating

Lending warm hands to our ghosts

Like when you try to juggle my planets in a game of laadhuu

I will cut my hands!

For I am the thief of my reality

Forever escaping

At least for now

To a temporal place

Not here

Where the birth of nicknames and tag-names come alive between tower blocks

For every roadman there’s a roadmap, reviving ancestral remembrance

I see

Young men on road

These roads don’t need man

Brother with a brother

Brother against a brother

Brother who forgot his brother

The smell of today is raging feet and ambiguous flavours

Flooded voices

A spring of screeching tones

Plunder a way in, right through dawn

Put on your specs and see the young that live difficult; and live not to look back

The vulnerable likes of

Weezy’s

Chipman’s, Inspecta’z

and

Creepa’z

The former

Abdi’s, Mahamoud’s and Khadar’s and more Abdi’s

run home like light bearing in hand, igniting pain in their environments

I’m tired of names that are lost above names, lost in translation, lost in the lanes of shotta’s, knife crime, gang-breeding and lowlife dhaqan celis-potters; they’re dreamers in the end!

Don’t judge before guidance

Invite silence sometimes

Pass mountains

Nostalgic gardens

What a tragic romance

Cul-de-sac

Tender conversations that mould into toxic subjects

We end up laughing about

Regretful years
Sliding
My tears are forever escaping
Going back
I remember the 90’s
When it was cool to have Tupac and Backstreet Boys posters in your bedroom
Now these walls are empty
And thoughts are vivid
Screaming more confusion
When my hands can’t spread their wings
Stiff, stuttering, suffering in stillness
Hoping for our shadows to speak our songs
Time flies, faithfully
Eyes swollen
Damp creases
Plastic water
I fear for the day that we won’t be able to leave our fossils for our children
Will our footprints be celebrated?
Somali flowers are kept for our future
Let us be
Our journeys
Until our names are remembered
And be open for the process of continuous pain, for it is unsealed like dragging a corpse with your teeth
Escape!
“Show me the way to go home”
“Show me the way to go home”
I woke up from a bad dream, folklore galore
I’m tired and I want to lay my mind at my feet
In uneven tension
What is perfection without the confidence of our imperfections
Be your hero today
If it must
We don’t know what’s next
Be your own decision maker
When the words of today make war between your native language and your diasporic/ given language
What would you save first?
Me against yesterday
I hope tomorrow will change
I hope tomorrow will be brave
I’m forever escaping, my child
Like sujood on rose petals
Pristine visions
Prisms of jewels
Invading giant spirits
Welcoming serenity
A safe shade for history and beyond, like herders in green loafers
You are meant to run for love
But if you can’t change it from a deeper self
Don’t change it all
I am forever escaping
My words burst for a thirsty spirit
So write to escape
Live to find, a brand new you