Smoke as a Symbol in Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

What Smoke Literally Is in the Collection

Smoke first appears as a physical substance: cigarette smoke from an uncle in a London bedsit, incense smoke rising from purification rituals, and the smoke of unseen fires that clings to memory. It is always present as something that can be seen, smelled, or felt, yet it drifts, dissipates, and eludes capture. In Warsan Shire’s poetry, smoke is never just smoke—it is a sensory link between the concrete world of diaspora life and the intangible realm of memory, grief, and survival.

Where Smoke Recurs

Smoke appears in at least eight poems across the collection, each time with a slightly different function. The following table summarizes the key occurrences:

How the Meaning of Smoke Changes

In the earliest poems, smoke is both a balm and a stain. In “Bless Your Ugly Daughter,” the infant is “smoked in uunsi to purify her of whatever / unclean thing she inherited.” The smoke is meant to cleanse, yet the speaker remains marked by war and thirst—the purification does not erase the inherited trauma. Similarly, in “My Loneliness Is Killing Me,” the uncle’s cigarette smoke opens a door to joyful belonging in Somalia, but the smoke is also a product of loneliness and exile. It literally allows him to “see something moving in the smoke,” which is the ghost of belonging.

As the collection progresses, smoke becomes increasingly linked to maternal presence and absence. In “Photographs of Hooyo,” the mother’s name is “hidden in incense smoke”—the smoke both reveals her grief and conceals it. In “Bless the Ghost,” the mother’s body carries a shroud of smoke, and the speaker describes an “odor of unknown origin” that is “smoke of unseen fire—memory smuggled / deep inside dreams.” Here smoke is the physical residue of trauma passed from mother to daughter.

Later poems, such as “Glitter on the Mouth of Boys” and “Joyride,” use smoke to evoke the ephemeral nature of youth and masculinity. The “soft interior of boys” is described as “velvet darkness expanding, / fading into smoke.” Smoke becomes a metaphor for the vulnerability that is hidden and then dissolved. In “Absolutely Fabulous,” chain-smoking is part of a manic performance that barely masks pain. The smoke under “ill-formed halos” suggests a fallen or failed form of saintliness.

Overall, smoke moves from an external agent (cigarette, incense) to an internalized signifier of memory and trauma. It can bridge past and present, but it can also obscure and fade, reminding the reader that what is lost cannot be fully recovered.

Character Connections

• Uncle (Abti): In “My Loneliness Is Killing Me,” the uncle’s cigarette smoke summons vivid Somali scenes. He is the character most directly linked to smoke as a bridge between displacement and homeland. The voice that tells him “be stronger than your loneliness” comes through the smoke. His loneliness is literal—he smokes alone, sings alone.
• Hooyo (mother): The mother is surrounded by incense smoke in multiple poems. Her sorrow is semi-visible through the smoke, and she uses smoke to purify her daughter, passing along a ritual that carries both care and wounding.
• The speaker (daughter): The speaker is the recipient of purifying smoke as a baby. In “Bless the Ghost,” she inherits her mother’s smoky memory. Smoke shapes her sense of being “covered in it” and marks her body with inherited war.
• Boys and youth: In “Glitter on the Mouth of Boys” and “Joyride,” smoke is exhaled by young men, linking it to rebellion and fleeting softness. The speaker observes them from a distance, and the smoke becomes part of the landscape of her observation.

Theme Connections

• Trauma and Survival: Smoke registers trauma that refuses to dissipate. The “smoke of unseen fire” in “Bless the Ghost” is the memory of war dead, “culled by war / and the white gloved hand of Europe.” Smoke carries the unprocessed weight of survival.
• Diaspora and Displacement: In “My Loneliness Is Killing Me,” the uncle’s cigarette smoke is the only thing that transports him from London back to Somalia. Smoke is the fluid medium of memory in exile. It is also a sign of what cannot be fully present: home.
• Womanhood and Girlhood: The purification of the infant speaker with uunsi links smoke to the expectations placed on girls’ bodies. The mother’s incense smoke hides her sorrow; the speaker inherits both the ritual and the hidden grief.
• Maternal Absence and Legacy: Smoke in “Photographs of Hooyo” and “Bless the Ghost” is the trace of the mother’s presence. It is both what she leaves behind and what she cannot speak. The daughter breathes it in.
• Assimilation and Identity: In “Absolutely Fabulous,” chain-smoking is part of a performed identity that the speaker watches from the “corner of the eye.” Smoke marks the attempt to belong through excess, while the cigarette itself is a commodity of the new country.

Smoke as a Bridge Between Past and Present

The uncle’s cigarette smoke in “My Loneliness Is Killing Me” is the clearest example. As he rolls tobacco and lets the smoke rise, he sees fragments of Somalia: riding a motorbike through Suuqa Bakaaraha market, women with hair like “black smoke,” the ocean at Jazeera Beach. The smoke is the vehicle for involuntary memory, Proustian in its immediacy. Yet the poem is decisively set in “London again,” with rain and a cassette player. Smoke does not erase the present—it overlays it. The uncle “sings along” but is “alone this time, alone every time.” Smoke bridges the two geographies without collapsing them. It allows for a momentary return that is simultaneously a confirmation of exile.

Four Study Questions with Answers

1. How does the physical act of smoking connect the uncle to his past in Somalia?

In “My Loneliness Is Killing Me,” the uncle rolls tobacco in a London room, and the smoke becomes a window into memory. He sees himself swimming at Jazeera Beach, riding through Suuqa Bakaaraha. The smoke is a medium that dissolves the boundary between present and past, but it does not allow him to stay in the memory—he remains in London, singing along to a Somali song on cassette, alone.

2. In what way does smoke function as a marker of inheritance for the speaker?

Smoke marks the speaker from infancy. In “Bless Your Ugly Daughter,” she is “smoked in uunsi to purify her.” The ritual is intended to cleanse, but the speaker is also “covered in it,” as though the smoke leaves a permanent residue of war and thirst. In “Bless the Ghost,” the mother carries “smoke of unseen fire” that the speaker must also live with. Smoke is inherited trauma made visible.

3. Compare the use of smoke in “Photographs of Hooyo” and “Glitter on the Mouth of Boys.” What different aspects of experience does smoke represent in each?

In “Photographs of Hooyo,” incense smoke hides the mother’s name and sorrow—it is a veil for grief. In “Glitter on the Mouth of Boys,” smoke is something the boys exhale and fade into; it represents the soft interior of masculinity that disappears. The first smoke conceals, the second dissipates.

4. Why might the collection conclude with an epigraph that contains no smoke, after so many references to it?

The closing epigraph, “ALL PRAISE DUE TO THE MOST HIGH,” offers a devotional silence. Smoke is the language of the in-between—memory, grief, purification—but the final line moves beyond language to praise. The absence of smoke suggests a shift from the material and sensory world of displacement to a moment of spiritual stillness, yet the smoke cannot be undone. Its residue remains in the poems that precede the epigraph.