A Returnee says:
I am a Returnee. UNHCR Somalia facilitated my repatriation. I lived in a Refugee Camp of a neighboring country for more than a decade. I requested voluntary repatriation to return home. I was brought back to Mogadishu recently. I visited my house after 14 years of war. I have a story to tell you.

The plane shot up
in the unmilked clouds
of the dark skies

I saw the cold steepy
landscape vanishing
in the wild fog

I said my Moslem prayers
I prayed for my country
I wanted to see home again

My senses were stirred
by the reality unfolding
Before my own eyes

I have thrown the weight
of refugeehood behind
But not the footprints
I had left on the
corridors of history

When the plane landed
I kissed the sand
I hugged the trees
Bees and butterflies
both rushed to me alike
They welcomed me home

They took me to my house
But upon sighting it
I cried. It cried, too
It was an abode of a ghost
The body was missing
only the skeleton
was standing
Devil chewed every
bit of its flesh

I greeted it but
no way was it able
to respond

It moved its charred lips
but failed to carry off
the right words

Nobody was around
Nobody cared
Nobody shared the pain

To my astonishment
a bird came over
It landed on broken ribs
As I watched the bird
Tears rolled down my eyes
But the bird denied them to fall
It read a message of peace
as tears dried in my eyes
Hope has filled my heart