Warsan Shire

Warsan Shire é uma jovem poetisa de origem britânica e somali, nascida em 1988. Descobri-a porque alguém postou um poema seu no Tumblr e eu quis ler mais coisas dela. Nunca suporia que ela fosse tão jovem... É difícil descrever os seus poemas: são crus e tristes e, no entanto, há algo que me dá esperança. Aqui vai um, aquele que me cativou, porque em algumas partes do mundo ser mulher é isto.

Your Mother’s First Kiss
by Warsan Shire

The first boy to kiss your mother later raped women
when the war broke out. She remembers hearing this
from your uncle, then going to your bedroom and lying
down on the floor. You were at school.

Your mother was sixteen when he first kissed her.
She held her breath for so long that she blacked out.
On waking she found her dress was wet and sticking
to her stomach, half moons bitten into her thighs.

That same evening she visited a friend, a girl
who fermented wine illegally in her bedroom.
When your mother confessed I’ve never been touched
like that before, the friend laughed, mouth bloody with grapes,
then plunged a hand between your mother’s legs.

Last week, she saw him driving the number 18 bus,
his cheek a swollen drumlin, a vine scar dragging itself
across his mouth. You were with her, holding a bag
of dates to your chest, heard her let out a deep moan
when she saw how much you looked like him.

Do livro "Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth"