Ahmad Al-Khatat was born in Baghdad, Iraq. His work has appeared in print and online journals globally and has poems translated into several languages. He has been nominated for Best of the Net 2018. He is the author of The Bleeding Heart Poet, Love On The War’s Frontline, Gas Chamber, Wounds from Iraq, Roofs of Dreams, The Grey Revolution, and Noemi & Lips of Sweetness.  He lives in Montreal, Canada.

Rest

When will I rest well from overthinking
I have blinded the daylight in my sights
I even paralyzed all steps to my objective
because I have been the blues in my deafness
When will I rest in peace from awful mouths
I ceased to exist between everyone I know it
I started to support the fight against poverty
unexpected death, and money with bloodstains
When will I learn myself to nothing but to rest
My wordless spirit is an immensely tragic story
It made my heart wonder what I would’ve done
-if I will have the strength to ignore my longing to
Before everywhere I go, I hear continuous outcries
But presently I see the sunshine with birds singing
This quarantine makes me think as we are all given
another bet, to heal what we have ruined before...

Layla’s Disappointment

Layla, I do not laugh effortlessly
Layla, I do not weep skillfully
Layla does not your name mean
-the night, or blues?
We no longer have the possibilities
Our story made the entire universe
-rain, as well as the students in the
classroom, I weep as I read it today
When I visit your tomb in the graveyard
I remember how the war forced the
-survivors, to transform our memories
into gray clouds of ash
Layla’s disappointment is everyone tale
It is touching and sad to realize she
got married at a young age, then she
became widow, before she died in the refugee
camps.

Choose Your Own Poem

Choose your own poem
If you can't reach the moon
Regulate your life journey
and never say that “You can't.”
Many things to write about
Just always read more books
Never lose hope on your ink
Just adopt an optimistic effect
Study hard and work fairly
Be smarter than you think
Don't expend your time in
an unethical background
Choose your own poem
and find the honest lady
to share her scent, eyes,
and her desire for your poem.