Quote by Warsan Shire: “You are a horse running alone and he tries to tame you.”

Being in your full, free, untamed self can make other people — especially those who love you — want to contain or direct you. The image of a wild horse being tamed is not romantic; it is a warning. Wildness, independence, and self-direction are worth protecting, even from those closest to you.

Shire wrote this in her debut pamphlet Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth, published in 2011 and circulated widely online. Her work resonated with young women from diaspora communities navigating questions of identity, freedom, and intimate relationships across different cultural expectations.

British-Somali poet who became the first Young Poet Laureate for London in 2013. Her poetry, rooted in the Somali diaspora experience, gained global recognition through her collaboration with Beyoncé on the visual album Lemonade in 2016.