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My Father, the Astronaut by Warsan Shire

By T.

23 May 2026

510

My Father, the Astronaut
Warsan Shire

If the moon was Europe, my father was an astronaut who died on his
way to the moon.
My father, the failed moonwalker, blinded by space. My father, the
Black cosmonaut, frenzied
by thirst. My father who heard the voice of God, clear as the call to
prayer, suspended in that dark desert.
My father who wore a spacesuit slashed by longing, spinning towards
the vast desolate.
On a night when the angels have drawn back their wings, you may
glimpse my father
hurtling through space, his body carried by gravity’s absence, blood
collecting in his head,
his tears pink, gelatinous clots, unable to fall.

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This poem appeared in Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire, published by Penguin Random House, 2022. (Available direct from Penguin Random House • Also on: Amazon • Bookshop)

ABOUT WARSAN SHIRE

Warsan Shire is a Somali British writer and poet born in Nairobi and raised in London. She has written two chapbooks, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth and Her Blue Body. She was awarded the inaugural Brunel International African Poetry Prize and served as the first Young Poet Laureate of London. She is the youngest member of the Royal Society of Literature and is included in the Penguin Modern Poets series. Shire wrote the poetry for the Peabody Award–winning

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