if you saw the way I dashed her flowers / I didn’t even think twice / they were gone / but you’ve always been like that / caring about stuff / nah I’m not judging you / I’m just saying / you’re good enit / you’re actually good. Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize for Poetry 2026 Pulling Faces yanks you by the collar and talks like your favourite, wayward cousin. Fresh and vivid, these poems are equal turns cheeky and world weary, defiant and mournful. Speaking of and to the Somali community, Zakariye eschews the romanticised cliches of the diasporic experience. Instead, he embraces the ugly, the strange, the mundane and the magical in all its simultaneity. It is never quite clear what is truth and what is myth or where the line between love and fear is drawn, and this very ambiguity is this pamphlet’s biggest strength. This is a gut-lead work that speaks just as loud in its omissions as its well chosen words. Part of Little Betty 2025, edited by Vanessa Kisuule and Anja Konig. ABOUT THE AUTHOR 20TH NOVEMBER 2025 ISBN: (Paperback) 978-1-913268-86-2 (ePub) 978-1-913268-87-9
