Poetry

AA/AU photo

By

Amirah Al Wassif

A question from the refugee camps

I asked them

How the sun says hello to everyone?

Then, they laughed bitterly

Without being sorry

And told me “ask the gun”

Her red spark

Sharp like a dark

Permits entering the light for none

They asked me “what is the sun”?

When our expected meeting will be done?

Since their question

I did not ask again

Cause everything was very clear

Through the war stain

There, in the Somali lands you can find the answers

Upon the clouds, in the camps even on the children’s features

There, in the Somali lands all the details written with no ink

The only truth here required from you to think

About those people who do not have the fun

But you still ask about their sun?

Among the refugee camps in Baidoa

I found a baby crawled

On the arm of his mama

Who seemed to me frowned

The baby opened his eyes widely

Looking for the next light

But his mama knows

No light comes with fight

In a crowd of the lost African bodies

He held my hand tenderly

He was selling water to the ladies

sitting on the docks

With their pots

Waiting for the day- early

In the Somali lands

They asked me

How the sun says hello to everyone?

Then, I replied with no hesitation

No sun comes with a gun

Amirah Al Wassif

Amirah Al Wassif is a freelance writer. She has written articles, novels, short stories poems and songs. Five of her books were written in Arabic and many of her English works have been published in various cultural magazines. Amirah is passionate about producing literary works for children, teens and adults which represent cultures from around the world. Her first book, Who do not Eat Chocolate was published in 2014 and her latest illustrated book, The Cocoa Book and Other Stories is forthcoming.