Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets' daily poetry dispatch. Read "Solidarity" by Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi.

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Solidarity

By Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi

Wind and water know nothing of borders

A cut on your brow is a cut on my brow

We bleed together

Our griefs intertwine across time and distance

I don’t know your name but I feel your eyes

I want to wrap my arms around your shaking body

I     too     am holding up the cold shell of who you love

I love them too

I love you like I love the ocean

The ocean does not know my name but feels my heart

Names can be so colonial anyway

Fuck Linnaeus

Did he ever write about knowing the souls of beings

My soul and your soul share the same cosmic thread

Stardust of your eyelashes forms cartilage of my ear

I try to imagine your laughter

People near me don’t understand my tears

You are near me

I hold your hand through cancerous cobalt and and bone-licking bomb

I try to find us a beach where waves are clear and clean

The breeze threads us together

This is telepathy

We are mycelium spores forming rain clouds

We are roots of trees talking beneath soil in ways no human can see

When you sigh I stir from my sleep

My love for you is a violence

My tenderness turns me into nightmare

I want to haunt all those who dare unbraid your glory

Any who cut our brows should be afraid

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Copyright © Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi

Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi is a Black mother who spends time with forests and waters on land of the T’Sou-ke Nation. Her work strives to instigate action in service to world-building, social change, and collaboration. Her poems live in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, MAYDAY, Torch, Rise Up Review, and other portals. Her first full-length collection, DREAMS FOR EARTH, is forthcoming from Deep Vellum in September 2025. Travel with her online at fatimaayanmalikahirsi.com.

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