Trying to Swim With God by Warsan Shire
Trying to Swim With God by Warsan Shire

Trying to Swim With God

Warsan Shire * Track #14 On Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth

Trying to Swim With God Annotated

Istaqfurulah

My mother says this city is slowly killing all our women;
practising back strokes at the local swimming pool.
I think of Kadija, how her body had failed her
on the way down from the block of flats.

The instructor tells us that the longest
a human being has held their breath under water
is 19 minutes and 21 seconds. At home in the bath,
my hair swells to the surface like vines, I stay submerged
until I can no longer stand it, think of all the things
I have allowed to slip through my fingers.

Inna lillahi Wa inna ilaihi Rajioon.

My mother says no one can fight it —
the body returning to God,

but the way she fell, face first,
in the dirt,
mouth full of earth,
air, teeth, blood,
wearing a white cotton baati,
hair untied and smoked with ounsi,
I wonder if Kadija believed

she was going to float.

Trying to Swim With God Q&A

Who wrote Trying to Swim With God's ?

Trying to Swim With God was written by Warsan Shire.

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