When I am in trouble, Lord, walk with me.

—A Negro spiritual

I

Early in the morning

Just after the false dawn

Just after I pray my daily Dawn Prayer

Just when one can tell

A white cat from a black cat

Or

A white thread from a black thread

Just before I break the fast

I trot out all my troubles

On leashes

And take them out for a walk

Like dogs.

II

When they do their doo-doo

on the neighbors’ lawns

As dogs would do

I stoop

I scoop

I dump their doo-doo

Into the manhole of the city

Into the sewage system of the Montreal city.

III

As I walk with Allah

As I talk with Allah

Who is closer to me than my life jugular vein

I sing my morning song of Gratitude and Praise

Which I owe Him

I also sing aloud of His Might and Majesty

Yea

I also sing aloud of His Mercy in the morning.

III

When I return

From my walk with God

From my talk with God

The troubles follow me

Trooping

Right back into the house

As loyal dogs would do

And collapse down on the carpet

Into a canine heap of panting thirsty slobbery hungry hanging-out tongues

Since they are now all too pooped out

To protest

To bark

To bite

Like Ina Yay does

When Meles makes him to

Since they all know now I won’t brook any barking back-talk

Since they are all now amenable to persuasion

Since they all know now

that I won’t take any lip from any of them

Since they are now ready and ripe for the picking

I bring out my Great Big Bertha of a gun

I pick them out

One by one

And put down all of my black dogs out of their misery

Forever. 

—Mahamud Siyad Togane

NOTES

Black dog: That is the name Winston Churchill gave to his own haunting depression.

Gratitude and Praise which I owe Him: “I Owe the Lord a Morning Song of gratitude and praise” is a favorite hymn of mine written by one called Amos Herr (1890)

Ina Yay: The puppet of Meles; The moniker of Abdullahi Yusuf who is now the President of Somalia.

Life jugular vein:  The Holy Koran says and I cite: “We created man and We [even] know the promptings of his mind. We are closer to him than his life vein. (50:16) And We are nearer to him than his jugular vein.”

“We created man, and we know what his soul whispers within him; and we are nearer unto him than his jugular vein. (The Holy Quran, [50:16])

“It was We who created man, and We know that dark suggestions his soul makes to him: for We are nearer to him than (his) jugular vein.” (The Holy Quran, [50:16])

Meles:  The puppeteer of the puppet Ina Yay; Ato Meles Zenawi is the current tyrant of Ethiopia whose dream is to always obfuscate, to always frustrate the hope and the dream of every Somali of re-establishing the Somali nation-state.

Mercy in the morning: See Ps 59: 16.
Might and Majesty: “There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah!” is a common Moslem prayer.