Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire

Author:Warsan Shire [Shire, Warsan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: African Literature, Poetry, Contemporary
ISBN: 9781905233298
Publisher: Flipped Eye
Published: 2011-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

The instructor tells us that the longest

a human being has held their breath under water

is 19 minutes and 21 seconds. At home in the bath,

my hair swells to the surface like vines, I stay submerged

until I can no longer stand it, think of all the things

I have allowed to slip through my fingers.

Inna lillahi Wa inna ilaihi Rajioon.

My mother says no one can fight it –

the body returning to God,

but the way she fell, face first,

in the dirt,

mouth full of earth,

air, teeth, blood,

wearing a white cotton baati,

hair untied and smoked with ounsi,

I wonder if Kadija believed

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