Since your departure silence has befallen
Despair and grief our lot others we exceed
The land you knew will you hardly recognize
From the cruelty of kinfolk to foreign lands we flee
The paradise we have in poverty we live
Bereft of hope and dreams burdened with fear we take flight
Our graves litter the land and in the seas many we buried
Sharks on our flesh feast off board infants are thrown
Pure and clean our daughters captives enslave for others
Our sons some don’t learn in gangs they belong
They pilfer and pillage in the prisons populate
Shunned in disdain in the ghettos we decline
Hands outstretched for pennies strangers we beg
For handouts we idle and watch our families break
The proud upright Somali No more the dignity and pride
Heads down in dishonor fraud and disrepute define our being
I forgot not the call you made or the question you asked
“If amongst us wasn’t one high-minded distinguished by courage?
Killers in leisure stroll among us soaked still in innocents’ blood”
The intent to write was not a pain to cause
To trouble your tranquil or disturb your peace
But to tell the tale and tally the toll
For the ultimate price you paid the day you gave your life
For a cause greater than you me and all that makes a man
Rest in peace for me beloved my dear brother
If close by you have a room save a space for me
And soon many will follow in the state we are
In the eons and ages and the history of our land
Suicides we never heard and the beheading of man
Unearthing bones of benevolent men
Slaying Imams in the house of peace and the sanctuary of man
In the name of Allah some claim their cause
Yet the cruelty they inflict pain and the suffering they cause
Limbs and heads they cut to death innocents they stone
Deliberate mayhem and chaos they delight in despair
Besieged and with rockets assailed Driven from our homes
The shade of trees we seek to shelter we are charged
In fear we live in despair we die
In search of food the grass we cut, cook and we boil
Infants suckle starving or corpses of long gone mothers
With swollen bellies soundless they wail
In the distance they stare for what only a child sees, hope!
In silence, mothers sob as little ones slowly die
The suffering we endure the heavens cry
And some Somalis rejoice in the plight we languish to exist
Silver and gold they seek from the anguish of our distress
Since you left silence has spread
Despair and grief our lot others we exceed
The land you knew will you hardly recognize
From the cruelty of kinfolk to foreign lands we flee
The paradise we have in poverty we live
The intent to write was not a pain to cause
To trouble your tranquil or disturb your peace
But to tell the tale and tally the toll
For a price, the highest you paid the day you gave your life
For a cause greater than you me and all that makes a man
Rest in peace for me beloved my dear brother
Give my greetings to all who wrongly were their lives robbed
And if close by you have a room save a space for me
And soon many will follow in the state we are