AHMAD AL-KHATAT

 

 

AHMAD AL-KHATAT

 

Stop Slaughtering The World

 

When I saw the orphan was mute

the widow hesitated to run

the instant she stopped hearing his moaning.

Turns out that the entire world weeps

-continuously at the headless corpses.

 

We struggle with influential words,

We die by the death penalty with no empathy,

We fight with ineffective missiles & weapons,

We die like a tree that falls in the woods alone.

We die proudly for preferring to stand up in peace.

 

O enemy, why do I perceive my blood rusting your dagger?

I donated my spirit to procure you back to your family

This world taught me to treat you like a welcoming guest

I want to hug you with your horrible knife stabbing my flesh

just listen to my last words, will you stop slaughtering the world?

 

Shake my blind father's hands without sharing sorrow

He bleeds with tears and dreams of a country that doesn’t

-terrify children, my imagination clarifies to me that I

will hear more laughter from my grandfather in the paradise

like the times when I heard birds singing & not the noise of fallen missiles.

 

Brightness

 

When the moon misses its brightness

I feel lonely as a forgotten painting in the gallery at dusk

 

Do you remember the moments we sipped the sun wine?

I absorb the biological colours of the rainbow

 

Then splash them above the grey clouds of autumn.

More birds would rise into the blue of her eyes,

 

They attacked my birthplace and crushed my heart in their infirmary.

I lost my hand and since then I became an alcoholic

 

Who prays after drinking whiskey from a homesick teacup?

Sad!

Why so!!

Don't be!!!

My neighbour doesn't seem

informed of the coffin I'm carrying since I accepted your friendship...

 

If You Waited

 

If you have waited for me at this hour

I'd take your hands and educate you on the new alphabet

With unique phrases of encouragement

Your lips will never be dry but mostly moist.

 

You may portray me as a dusty typewriter

Since you see tears on the windows of my eyes

Flying dead leaves of optimism in my spirit

Sad & love poems are hung in my brain to death.

 

You say I’ve seen you here many times.

You asked, who am I to untie your knotted heart?

I am a boat of long silence and gathered grief

my writings could never bloom more lovers.

 

This earth or this planet is not a familiar door

The stream hasn't revealed the face of my beloved

O farmer, keep your seeds asleep and fantasy

of the rain ‘till you pour your tears above your farm.

 

Aggressive Insomnia

 

The night appears beautifully decorated

with a moon surrounding the glowing stars

My mind expects to jump into another battle

With thoughts beneath the dust of a blade.

 

I rest my body and forcefully close my eyes,

Endless nightmares hold my throat and breathe

The muscles numb from all empty-handed

My mouth refuses to yell at the dark cloud.

 

Aggressive insomnia doesn't understand the

meaning of morning rain or gleaming snow.

Today's world could not reach out to my love

If I wrongly survive then I'd force myself to drink.

 

What should I hold to sleep in consensus?

The sun has died in my world of difference

I chose to smoke over unnecessary friendship

I successfully hid your corpse but failed to find my own.

 

AHMAD AL-KHATAT

 

AHMAD AL-KHATAT was born in Baghdad, Iraq. His work has appeared in print and online journals globally. He has poems translated into several languages such as Farsi, Chinses, Spanish, Albanian, Romanian. He has published some poetry chapbooks, and a collection of short stories. He has been nominated for Best of the Net 2019 and was also nominated for the Pushcart Price 2020.