eople do not leave home by choice?
Warsan Shire (1988 - Present) shows a dark and painful world in her poem “Home” (2022). She uses simple pictures of a city on fire, a boy with a gun, an airport toilet, a refugee camp, and long miles of travel. She shows people running, hiding, crying, and losing everything. Through these events and places, she proves that people do not leave home by choice. They leave only when life is in danger.
Home Becomes Danger: Shire shows that home turns into a place of fear. People escape because home itself becomes a threat. She writes,
“No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.”
The poet uses the picture of a shark to show danger and death. She also adds,
“You only leave home when home won’t let you stay.”
This line shows that home pushes people out. The city is not normal. It is burning. The whole population runs. She says the person runs to the border only when the whole city runs. Everyone escapes together. Even the boy from school, the one who once kissed the speaker behind the old tin factory, now carries a gun bigger than his body. He becomes a sign of a broken home. When a school friend turns into a fighter, home is not safe. People leave because the home falls apart.
Violence Forces People to Run: Violence forces people to run. Shire shows that people escape only after violence reaches them. Home pushes them out. Violence is close. It follows them. They feel long fear. They try to stay brave. They carry their anthem softly. They tear their passport in an airport toilet. This shows deep fear. It breaks their link to their country. Each piece they swallow shows they cannot return. They did not plan this journey. Violence makes them run.
The Painful Journey: The journey is painful. Shire shows that travel is full of danger. No one chooses this road. Parents would never risk their children unless home is worse. So, she writes,
“No one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.”
People spend days and nights in the back of a truck. They crawl under fences. They walk endless miles. They are beaten. They are shot at the border. No one chooses pain. They move because home is more deadly than the road.
Refugee Camps and Borders are not Choices: Refugee camps and borders are not choices. Shire shows that escape is not freedom. No one wants to live in a camp for years. Camps are not homes. They are places of waiting, hunger, and fear. People are undressed and searched. They feel prison everywhere. They hear insults from others. Shire says they are insulted by words like,
“Go home Blacks, dirty refugees.”
They feel unwelcome. They do not leave home for comfort. They leave their own home because survival matters most.
Memory and Loss Show Deep Pain: In part II, Shire shows the feelings behind escape. The speaker says,
“I don’t know where I’m going.”
She feels her past disappearing. This shows loss. She feels shame, fear, and hope. She says her beauty is not beauty here. She feels she does not belong. She remembers the men who looked like her father, who harmed women. She says even this new pain is better than seeing a woman on fire. This shows that leaving is the safer choice. She does not choose freely. She escapes death.
Warsan Shire uses danger, violence, painful journeys, refugee camps, and deep emotional wounds to prove that people do not leave home by choice. They run because life at home becomes impossible. Home becomes fear. Home becomes the mouth of a shark.
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