I walk through this empty town watching cracks on concrete walls.
Broken object littered in turns, Smoke rising from blurred distance,
The smell of death soar in freedom, as silence and fright flirts the evening skies. I chuck in dizziness, I fall.


2. To the old lady by my side holding me up to my fit.
She, gazing down at me like an object ferried from the Nile to shore
I stare back in fear and dread.

3. Clothed in a dark falling garment,
head beautifully scarfed with dark linen,
She smiles and holds my hands firmly pulling me through like we are dangling from a narrowing bridge. Like this part we stand on- a flit of automobiles speeding through a broken highway.

4. She walks me down the crumbling town
Pointing in every direction and mumbling words with a heavy heart.
The words I can tell- names of folks gone far beyond.
Mohammed Salih, Yacoub Salih, Ibrahim Salih.
..Oh Mogadishu you took them all
She goes on and on.

5. I see fear in your eyes my son, she says
Yes, anxiety rounding your heart for this place you fall through
a different temple, not what you pray to.
A place of tears
Abashed with gloomy smiles, an oasis of stories; strange stories
you can tell with horror.
Son Watch but grow from this cancer
from this dark that has glued us to an Eldorado of death
For we are up in flames, burning every minute, every day,
Waiting for the rain to shower us with her blessings.
Look,
Judgment by man to another man is what you see.  
Look how we breathe, look how we dance in perpetual madness
In the name of God.

6. As we ride along this part you will see
That at the end, a man will **** a man, a woman will cry, a child will suffer, there will be hunger.
It will be called war, a place of unpleasant sounds and unmarked cemeteries.
When you Hold your breath and let go, this voyage will begin and end here.
This is all there is my son, this is all you will see.
A world not far from yours but bleak at night and bleaker in daylight
here in Mogadishu, the heart of the Sahara.
I clinch my teeth and hold her dress, with passion like a child to a candy, We move in silence, cold silence.

7. In the early hours of that morning
I saw a twilight breaking through the dark clouds.
The heavens pushing forth peace to earth that it shone through every household and space.
It was fine and obvious that day had come to life.
My heart lipped, the joy that earmarked my soul, the relive, “enigma” for I had woken to safety.
At last New York my home, Somalia the nightmare that spoke.
You played me gunshots and called it music,
you left me speechless in moments of needful moments.
They said it was a dream, a movie perhaps.
So-long I will never dream of you again.

8. But that voice came alive again and again –
"she" the beautiful one, the one who spoke to me as I lay sleeping through the daunting nights.
Young man, rejoice, but not when this fire burns through this mountain.
For Soon it will catch up every city, every town.
Remember,
This world connects us like beads on a maiden’s waist. Speak and act while you can" for not all Brothers bear the same name. Not all sisters have the same mother,
We may not Dwell in the same town, But we all come from man made by the same God. speak.

9. This is how we are, everyone Born free, born innocent to time, place and space.
Full of good intention for mankind but thrown to the dust.
When we come into this world, we are like the lights that come from above.
A gift to humanity but hacked down by the evil that clinch to a dying universe.
Perdition to blood suckers!! she rants.
Her face red like apples to a wholesome tree. Let your voice be heard son. Of the injustice you see here and in every corner of the world. Speak so life can speak to you in peace.
So you can go to bed and dream the heavens.

10. It is shameful that the man who once lived here wails in the aftermath.
He says, See, This world heard me loud and clear when I came in, but today, I go back in silence with wounds protruding my battered skin; like a ******* thrown in the bin, they leave me, No value, no care for a creation so great so beautifully made by God.
Let your voice be heard my son.  Speak for your safety, speak for your life.  Speak for all.

b. That Sunday morning, I held out my bible on the pulpit and preached the word.
One God forever and ever.
Amen

Donald