Our 2010 Somali Vision

When you become bald

When you become testa bottiglia
When you become as bald as a bottle
You fall in love with hats
Ask any baldy
I have bushels of hats
I have basketfuls of hats
I wear my hats as I please
Indoors or out
Just like my uncle Walt used to do
I have all sorts of hats
I have a Jewish hat for the
synagogue
I have a Christian Amish Mennonite farmer’s hat for the cathedral
I have a Moslem hat for the mosque
I have a Buddhist hat for when the Dalai Lama descends upon my city
I was born under the cool chameleon hat star that twinkles
Live & let live
I am always the black cat in the hat
I am a man of many hats
But I just don’t wear faithless hats
They are just too holey
They are just too full of hooey
I just love speaking through my many hats
That is why I have oodles of them
When I am wearing my high hat
When I act so high hat
I speak fancy French to wow the witless
I am a Somali
I often forget to put on my thinking cap
Ergo I am often as mad as a harebrained hatter
Ergo I am often as mad as a March hare even when it is September
Ergo I often get mad at the drop of any of my many hats
That is why I always shoot my silly Somali self senseless
And that shouldn’t make you eat your hat
I am never ever an old-hat
I never wear a ten-dollar hat on a five-cent head like Dubya
But do pray let me tell you about
My most especial
My most priceless beautiful hat
My very favorite hat
That is now perched on top of my head
That keeps my baldpate
Warm
Wise
Witty
Waxy
It’s green
It’s white
It’s red
It’s silver
It’s all these cozy colors coordinated
Cool
I inherited my hat
From my friend
From Laurent Laliberté
Laurent Laliberté is libre now
Free
From the “short fever-fit” of this life
From the fret of this life
From the fatude of this life
From the strife of this life
Laurent is gone
“Gone away
Gone far away into [that] silent land”
Gone far away into “that undiscovered country
From whose bourne no traveler returns”
Laurent is gone now
Gone away
Gone far away into that silent land
He is here too
For you know
"Every shut eye ain't sleep
Every goodbye ain't gone"
So I see Laurent sometimes
So I hear Laurent sometimes
So I feel Laurent sometimes
Because
Si-yaad baa lee yiraa maandhey
Salaad dii baan ka’a!
Because
My name is Si-yaad
Because I am up every morning
For the dawn prayer
Before the muezzin calls
Come to prayer
Come to real success
Prayer is better than snoring
So
I sit silent before the Almighty
Before the false dawn
Before daybreak
Before breakfast
Before you can barely distinguish a black thread from a white thread
For my Togane faith is the Tagore bird that sings when the dawn is still dark
So
I sit silent before the Almighty
Then I talk with the Most Compassionate
Then I walk with the Most Merciful
Then I beseech
The All Peaceful
The Bestower of Peace
To help us Somalis realize our Somali Faith Venture Vision
To help us Somalis pull the Somali peace rabbit out of the Somali hat
So
I sit silent before Allah
Before the best Teacher
Who can teach like Allah
Who teaches me every dawn
How to see the invisible
How to hear the inaudible
How to feel the intangible
How to achieve the impossible
Which is to be a Somali barefoot penniless poet
Which is to sing à la Americano
Just like Yankee Doodle Dandy Dude
Just like Yankee Doodle Dandy Dude do or die
Just like the real live nephew of my Uncle Sam
Just like as if I were born on the Fourth of July.
(For Cecile Laliberte) By Mohamud S. Togane January 10, 2010
Mohamud Siad Togane
E-Mail:togane@sympatico.ca