Pray for Ease // Write & Breathe
Last week I couldn’t sleep because terrorists were driving through my neighborhood. The Klan drove in broad daylight across the city. No one was arrested because the people tasked with arresting them are also their cousins. And so, really, do black lives matter? …
This picture was taken on May 17th, 2018, a few days after I moved from Mankato to Minneapolis to try and make it, whatever that means. …
“You’re very self-invalidating; you give up very easily. You feel defeated all the time,” said my former therapist. He’s right, you know. But maybe that’s why I don’t go to his office anymore. He’s right, and I feel defeated right
In Somalia, and Somaliland, weed is not hard to find. Most Westerners are shocked to hear that. That’s not surprising, because most Westerners are unable to imagine a world outside the West. Sadly, most people from the Global South who move to the West end up taking on that same mindset. The West is ruthless in its ideological maneuvering. It slithers its way into your conscious without your ever noticing. More and more, day by day, you become what the West wants you to become, until one day you look up and see a different person staring back in the morning mirror. Unrecognizable. …
I wish I could see past my own pain to see the pain of others, especially when I cause that pain. But as it stands, all I can feel is the burden of my blight. To be born borderline, ah. If only I could show you with a flashlight. …
I think it’s important to remember that life isn’t guaranteed. As easy as it is to fall into autopilot, to be deluded into thinking we’ll live forever, the reality is that we will not. …
40 choppers like I’m Rambo. …
In response to a NYT article about the recent Quebec ban on religious symbols that’s forced Muslim women to choose their religion or their jobs: “Perri Ravon, a lawyer who has worked on two of the lawsuits against the ban,
“Where dead men sleep in palaces, surely the living must be living in paradise.” …
but won’t ever get to realize that dream – If you’re black in this country – And a third of your mind is behind the keyboard …
Sometimes the words feel like mango strands in my veins. …
Won’t you love me, black? Love me and I’ll love you back. …
Tell me about irrelevancy? That’s irrelevant. Tell me about growth? I’m in it. Tell me about… 9707 9th Pl SW, APT 101, Seattle, WA, 98106? That’s in my memory. Tell me how many cigarettes you smoked on the front balcony? Enough
That’s the only color you’ll find in Seattle. Splattered brains on sidewalks. Also, the bright neon orange of King County Corrections jumpsuits. It’s a bad place to be, black. It’s a bad place to be, full stop.
…
I don’t know what this work is, or what it’ll turn into. I just know that it’s here, it’s something which needed to come from me. And I haven’t walked away from it. The format has changed, and I don’t
I’m from Seattle where people drown in the rain, heads tilted back, eyes cloudy with the grey of the sky. In Seattle, we cry so many tears that they evaporate on our face and turn into clouds and produce the rain that is responsible for everyone being so depressed and crying on the back of the bus all the time. …
I’m watching a man think about sitting on a frozen bus bench. He just had his morning coffee? He’s got one AirPod in, just one. He just lit his morning cig. Just one. Like Nas? All he needs is one
the rain has entered me intravenously. …
“Your triggering subjects are those that ignite your need for words. When you are honest to your feelings, that triggering town chooses you. Your words used your way will generate your meanings. Your obsessions lead you to your vocabulary. Your
I feel so alone in my writing. What I expected is what I got. And when I go to wokshop ever weak, it is with dread. Every week I am filled with dread. Last night, I tore up my own
The people who feel most entitled to live also feel most entitled to talk. From what I’ve seen, white people don’t hesitate to speak up in class. To ask for extra sugar at a café. To submit their writing for
Nowadays I dissociate more than ever before. The last year has been one dissociative leap. I just kind of stare off, bro. Feel like I don’t even exist. Or that the emptiness inside me is greater than I can fathom.
“Sometimes its very intense and I walk – I mean, I write a sentence and I jump up and run outside or something; it sort of beats you up.” – Toni Morrison My assignment in class was to engage with
I just came back from a road trip to Toronto, CA with about 25 young Somali brothers from the Twin Cities. It was great. I’m not a journalist so I’m going to avoid giving you a point-by-point breakdown of what
I looked at myself in the rearview mirror on the freeway this morning. My eyes were defeated. Low and red. …
Which is fine, or whatever, except that scared white people are quick to call the police, and the police, as we all know, are quick to draw like a wild west cartoon character named McGraw. …
Wake up to the sound of wildebeest snorting on the Saranghetti; smell pure air; feel the dew on the tent as you step onto the cold grass, listening to the boiling chai as the sun crests. Watch that same sun
America plucked your eyes out, Somalia gave them back. America stifled your soul, Somalia breathed it back. …
I wanted to tell her that everything would be okay, that she didn’t have to cry anymore. …
I don’t think I’m really real, or really here, or really anything, really. But my [physical] tells me otherwise. …
I’ve been really interested in performance lately. The various ways that we are made to perform. Performance as an unavoidable game. They say that games are for kids. Being an adult, I’m realizing more and more, is about playing games
White faces, white facesall I see are white facesstaring back with all that hatredwhite faces, white faceswhy so racist?White faces, a spell on me, white faces, no pedigreewhite faces, muppet lips, pulled tight like white skin, in the sunlet it
But sometimes we get in the way of our own saving. …
The thing about poetry is that anyone can appreciate any poem, but certain poems are meant for certain people. …
Nobody wants to be used. …
You know, I used to want to work at hospitals, back in the day, because I found hospital folks were generally more empathetic than other folks. I now work at a hospital and I’m finding that, one – our dreams
– just give me a cloud of protection to hide in – To hide from the world but the world is Still me, running from the farm Still me, when I found the white horse \\ beside a brown picket
If you know anything about me, you know that Claudia is one of my favorite living writers. Her approach to poetry, to writing in general, and how she finesses her subject matter with such a considerate touch really moves me
So I was watching Donnie Darko the other day. That movie came out towards the end of high school. At the time, I was questioning the unfairness of this rat race. It hurt me to go through the motions, but
In the heart of darkness, the darkest parts of the night, of our life, is when the light to fight back is found. Life will sometimes throw you for a loop, and no one can save you but yourself. By
What am I but a function of time? Graphed over a pie chart. Yesterday was great. If I could investigate the surface level things in my life, I wouldn’t have much to write about. Or would I? How much
Winter. I feel, the blues, coming on. I mean; they’re already here. Been here. Been had. Might could. And then? To be had is every nightmare’s dream. To become something greater than one ever hoped to be – the
4 AM – Rawdah, Masjid An Nabbawi, Madinah Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia. As I handed the Lebanese brother to my left a coconut-flake covered date, he looked me in the eye and said, “Fi Jannah, Insha Allah.” In Heaven, Lord Willing.
Michael Jordan represents hope to a lot of people. I think his motivation came from an unshakeable inadequacy lodged deep within his psyche. No matter how hard he tried, Mike could never meet his own standards. While that would be
When I reflect on the discussions we’ve held in this course, a few things come to mind. First, that I enjoy writing, talking about writing, and learning about other people’s approaches to writing. One of the main reasons that we
But how can I think about my own happiness when Trump wants to bring lynching back and I’m just trying to figure out where in this world I belong. Where can I raise kids that won’t be taught to hate
Maad iska guursatid? It is a phrase which I’ve grown to detest. Roughly translated, it means why don’t you just get married. First of all, there’s nothing ‘just’ about marriage. It is a huge commitment, a monumental effort in human
I work hard for everything I have. I sweat and grind for this. I show up to work red-eyed and over-caffeinated for this. I showed my sister my savings account balance a few weeks ago. She said she hated me,
This year I’m going to try something other than pathologizing my winter doldrums. I’m going to accept them. I’m going to try to reach a peaceful accord with them instead of fighting back. You can’t fight the inevitable; resistance is
Writing is about many things. One of them is learning how to write. Another is learning how to learn how to write. Another is learning how you write best. Yet another is writing about learning how to write. Another still