June 10, 2015 | Posted by admin
Ruby 
Are you contemplating going out somewhere
The shadow on the wall tells me the sun is going down
Oh Ruby, don’t take your love to town.
—Kenny Rogers
The chain of marriage is so heavy that it takes two to bear it; 
sometimes three.
                                                        ― Alexandre Dumas
Shut your big mouth!
The first English words I understood from the mouth of 
Daddy!
I remember now
Ruby
it was 1961
Hannah Arendt had just published her 
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil
Ruby
1961 was also that fateful year when your family 
Had taken me in off the streets of Mogadishu as one of their own 
Had adopted me 
In Somalia 
In the Village of Mahadday Wayne
Our Daddy
Carl Johannes Wesselhoeft
Our own Eichmann 
was hiding in Mahadday Wayne 
among the Mennonite Missionaries 
by pretending to be one of them!
But he fooled no one!
The Nazi!
That is what we Somalis and the American Mennonite Missionaries called him behind his back
Our Daddy was 
so obnoxious
so Nazi
That the Somali Authorities kicked him out of Somalia for a month
for preaching 
out of his Bible  
out of Hitler’s 
Mein Kampf!
Upon his return from Nairobi 
he had to report every month all his activities to the local village authorities 
Ruby
From the get-go 
Our Daddy
 Barely made it possible for me to breathe or Achoo
Ruby
From the get-go
Our Daddy told me 
Shut your big mouth!
Ruby
From the get-go 
I had the courage to tell 
The Bully
The Nazi
Our Daddy
Our own Eichmann
Go fuck yourself!
I don’t like you
Because I don’t like bullies!
As a matter of fact I am allergic to krauts like you 
Period!
Our mother 
Leota Good loved me for saying that to his face!
When I praised Mom
Out of jealousy
The kraut taunted  me with his kraut proverb
Whose bread I eat 
Her song I sing!
Mamma Leota found marriage to our Daddy so heavy to bear 
That she openly took lovers right and left 
she openly had a legendary lover 
one called Hassan Arab living with us under the same roof!
Our Mamma Leota was no hypocrite like our Daddy!
The whole village of Mahadday Wayne enjoyed 
watching this Soap Opera 
playing out on the banks of the Shabelle River!
But our Daddy pretended 
that he did not notice!
that he did not care!
But one day our Daddy took his revenge 
When he saw that Mamma Leota was not dying
as he was hoping
But recovering from Malaria
Daddy cruelly told her 
You spoiled my plans
As soon as you vacated the premises 
And we carted away your carcass I was going to marry
Either 
Fae Miller
Or
Elsie Vanpelt!
Ruby
When will you be brave enough like 
Sister Sylvia Plath
And say:
Daddy, I have had to kill you 
I never could talk to you
The tongue stuck in my jaw
It stuck in a barb wire snare  
Ich, ich, ich, ich
I could hardly speak
I thought every German was you  
And the language obscene
An engine, an engine
Chuffing me off like a Jew
A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen  
I began to talk like a Jew
I think I may well be a Jew
I may be a bit of a Jew
I have always been scared of you
With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo 
And your neat mustache
And your Aryan eye, bright blue
Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You——
Every woman adores a Fascist 
The boot in the face, the brute   
Brute heart of a brute like you
A man in black with a Meinkampf look
So daddy, I’m finally through
There’s a stake in your fat black heart   
And the villagers never liked you
They are dancing and stamping on you 
They always knew it was you
Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through!
Oh Ruby
Don’t take your love to town
Don’t take your love to the Nazi
Don’t take your love to Daddy!
Don’t be his floozy fraulein!
Oh Ruby
Don’t take your love to town
Oh Ruby, for God’s sake turn around
Oh Ruby, for God’s sake come back to your senses!
Oh Ruby, for God’s sake remember 
You are the Daughter of Leota Good too!
As you know 
I am no longer an American like you!
I can’t ever come back and live in the USA again
Because of that ol’ crazy Asian war
It wasn’t me that started that ol’ crazy Asian war
But I was proud to go and do my patriotic chore 
And demonstrate against that ol’ crazy Asian war
In from of the White House 
Yelling 
Like Mohamed Ali
for all the world to hear
Hell, No!
We won’t go!
No Viet Cong ever called me Nigger!
Hey! Hey!
Hey LBJ
How many kids did you kill today!?
And I am proud to say I did my patriotic chore and drove LBJ 
out of the White House and into his early grave!
While our Nazi Daddy-o was praying 
with Billy Graham
with LBJ
Singing together
Onward Christian Soldiers!
marching as to war
With the cross of Jesus
going on before!
Christ, the royal Master
leads again the foe
Forward into battle
see his banner go!
Oh Ruby
It is not too late!
Don’t take your love to town
Don’t take your love to the Nazi
Don’t take your love to Daddy!
Don’t be his floozy fraulein!
Oh Ruby
Don’t take your love to town
Oh Ruby, for God’s sake turn around
Oh Ruby, for God’s sake come back to your senses! 
Oh Ruby, for God’s sake remember 
You are the Daughter of Leota Good too!
                                — Your brother, Mohamud Siad Togane
__._,_.___
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