Do you have one of those friends who always tells you exactly what you need to hear, even when you're not quite ready to hear it? In this short poem, called Till The Moon, award-winning Somali Canadian poet Ifrah Hussein is that friend, delivering in these lines a few truths that may stay with you longer than you'd care to admit.

Hussein is the 2017 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam champion and a 2018 World Cup of Slam Poetry finalist. In 2019, Hussein toured her poetry around North America and has performed everywhere from Regina to Brazil. For more of her work, check out her book of poetry, An Anthology of Grief: Or the Ways a Somali Woman Loves.

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Till The Moon
by Ifrah Hussein

You cannot force a lifetime of what
was only meant to live with you for a moment.
you hold onto things beyond their expiry
then wonder why your fiancé's name
no longer tastes like yesterday's joy.
if ever it means I will receive
the love I am worthy of,
then by God,
i shall wait till the moon dips
and the third of the night arrives.
and when the world is burning at your feet,
remember you still have a God who created fire.

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