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