A loop, a girl born
to each family,
prelude to suffering.
Bless the baby girl,
caul of dissatisfaction,
patron saint of not
good enough
Are you there, God?
It’s me, Warsan.
Maladaptive daydreaming,
obsessive, dissociative.
Born to a lullaby
lamenting melanin,
newborn ears checked
for the first signs of color.
At first I was afraid, I was petrified.
The child reads surahs each night
to veil her from il
protecting body and home
from intruders
She wakes with a fright,
someone cutting the rope,
something creeping
deep inside her
Are you there, God?
It’s me, the ugly one.
Bless the Type 4 child,
scalp massaged with the milk
of cruelty, cranium cursed,
crushed between adult knees,
drenched in pink lotion.
Everything you did to me,
I remember.
Mama, I made it
out of your home
alive, raised by
the voices
in my head
2022
Regular
Confessionalism
2024
Childhood & Coming of Age
Family
Mental Health
Alliteration
the repetition of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words appearing in succession
Allusion
an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference
Hypophora
a figure of speech wherein a writer raises a question and then immediately answers it