A Question from the Refugee Camps
By Amirah Al Wassif
I asked them
How the sun says hello to everyone
Then they laughed bitterly
Without sorrow,
And told me: “Ask the gun”
Her red spark
Sharp like the dark
Permits the light to enter for none.
They asked me: “What is the sun?”
“When will our expected meeting be done?”
Since their question
I did not ask again,
Because everything was all so 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 details are written without ink
The only truth here requires you to think
About those people who live without fun
But you still ask about their sun.
Among the refugee camps in Baidoa
I found a baby clinging
To the arm of his mama
Who seemed to frown
The baby opened his eyes wide
Looking for the next light
But his mama knows
No light comes without a fight
Among the crowd of lost African bodies
He held my hand tenderly
He was selling water to the ladies
Who were sitting on the docks
With their pots
Waiting for the day.
In the Somali lands
They asked me
How the sun says hello to everyone,
So I replied with no hesitation
No sun comes with a gun
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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 Doesn’t Eat Chocolate, was published in 2014, and her latest illustrated book, The Cocoa Book and Other Stories, is forthcoming.