home unless home is the mouth of a shark

Text 2

Home

No one leaves

home unless home is the mouth of a shark

you only run for the border

when you see the whole city running as well

Your neighbors running faster than you

breath bloody in their throats

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 homewhen

home won‘t let you stay.

No one leaves home unless home chases you

fire under feet

hot blood in your belly

it‘s not something you ever thought of doing

until the blade burnt threats into

your neck

and even then you carried the anthem under

your breath

only tearing up your passport in an airport toilet

sobbing as each mouthful of paper

made it clear that you wouldn‘t be going back.

You have to understand,

that no one puts their children in a boat

unless the water is safer than the land

no one burns their palms

under trains

beneath carriages (…)

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 told you to quicken your legs

leave your clothes behind

crawl through the desert

wade through the oceans (…)

No one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear

saying –

leave,

run away from me now

I dont know what I‘ve become

but I know that anywhere

is safer than here.

By Warsan Shire. Disponível em: https://www.facinghistory.org/educator-resources/current-events/many-faces-global-migration#8 Excertos. Acesso em: set. 2020.