<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">No One Leaves Home</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">no one leaves home unless</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">home is the mouth of a shark</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">you only run for the border</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">when you see the whole city running as well</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">your neighbors running faster than you</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">breath bloody in their throats</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">the boy you went to school with</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">is holding a gun bigger than his body</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">you only leave home</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">when home won’t let you stay.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">no one leaves home unless home chases you</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">fire under feet</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">hot blood in your belly</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">it’s not something you ever thought of doing</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">until the blade burnt threats into</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">your neck</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">and even then you carried the anthem under</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">your breath</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">sobbing as each mouthful of paper</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">you have to understand,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">that no one puts their children in a boat</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">unless the water is safer than the land</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">no one burns their palms</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">under trains</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">beneath carriages</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">means something more than journey.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">no one crawls under fences</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">no one wants to be beaten</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">pitied</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">no one chooses refugee camps</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">or strip searches where your</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">body is left aching</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">or prison,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">because prison is safer</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">than a city of fire</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">and one prison guard</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">in the night</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">is better than a truckload</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">of men who look like your father</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">no one could take it</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">no one could stomach it</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">no one skin would be tough enough</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">the</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">go home blacks</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">refugees</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">dirty immigrants</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">asylum seekers</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">sucking our country dry</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">niggers with their hands out</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">they smell strange</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">savage</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">messed up their country and now they want</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">to mess ours up</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">how do the words</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">the dirty looks</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">roll off your backs</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">maybe because the blow is softer</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">than a limb torn off</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">or the words are more tender</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">than fourteen men between</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">your legs</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">or the insults are easier</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">to swallow</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">than rubble</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">than bone</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">than your child body</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">in pieces.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">i want to go home,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">but home is the mouth of a shark</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">home is the barrel of the gun</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">and no one would leave home</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">unless home chased you to the shore</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">unless home told you</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">to quicken your legs</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">leave your clothes behind</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">crawl through the desert</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">wade through the oceans</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">drown</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">save</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">be hunger</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">beg</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">forget pride</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">your survival is more important</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">saying-</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">leave,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">run away from me now</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">i dont know what i’ve become</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">but i know that anywhere</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class="">is safer than here</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Warshan Shire</div></div></body></html>