"i was a child who could not understand why my mother's body was a mosque"
The poem suggests that trauma changes how one occupies space. The speaker is no longer able to perform the social rituals of "being okay." The body becomes a heavy, conspicuous object. Shire strips away the romanticism of sadness; there is nothing beautiful or poetic about this blue body. It is heavy, it is unsightly, and it is isolating. her blue body warsan shire pdf
She remembered the first time she saw the blue. She was seven, standing before a mirror, and noticed a vein in her wrist that looked like a jagged lightning bolt. "That’s where the ocean stays," her mother had whispered, pulling Elara’s sleeve down. "Keep it covered. The world doesn't like to see how much water we carry." "i was a child who could not understand