Poetry: Ahmad Al-Khatat

The Rainbow who Saved my Life

The last rainbow that appeared,
recognized me from my eyes
he told me that I survived the war
and that he saved my life

he said that back in my homeland
he can’t be seen when he appears,
instead he helps the angels to paint by
Marking the children with my colours

he painted red on the ones that died
he painted orange on the hungry ones
he painted yellow on the ill ones
he painted green on the orphaned ones

he painted blue on the heavily wounded ones
he painted indigo on the ones with last breath
and lastly, he painted me with violet
to live between all of my old friends 

Who died, and I did not

The Scent of Death

All writers smoke cigarettes
and so I smoke cheap cigars

All poets drink wine and cheese
and so I drink vodka with nuts

All dreamers talk about romance
and so I talk about love in an erotic way

All workers take a break from work
and so I do not take a break from life

All students share ideas to help me
and so I share my knowledge voicelessly

All ordinary people sleep well and warm
but I do not sleep well because death take me

until the unknown day my flesh will release
the scent of death from the four walls of my room

Five Stages of Death

 O world, take the cup from me

I already feel the damages of

The last sips down my throat

Exploring the five stages of

Death

Denial

Isolation

Anger

Anxiety

and depression

Museum of Corpses

Inside
museum
of corpses
there are
dead refugees
bodies who
died ’cause
they were
not characters,
but priceless,
experiments
That helped
humankind,
with plastic
surgery, they
test dangers
And feature
The weapons
Of flesh
and blood,
crash test
dummies,
design body
armour against
the aliens
from the
spaceship
and women,
private body
parts were
all set
to put on
sale, since
all the
hairstylists
and
cosmetics
had been
working
hard to
keep their
belief in
Death.
It does not
have to
be boring
inside the
mind of
Lively souls.

---

Ahmad Al-Khatat: He was born in Baghdad on May 8th. From Iraq, he came to Canada at the age of 10, the same age when he wrote his first poem back in the year 2000. He also has been published in several press publications and anthologies all over the world. His poems were translated into Farsi, Albanian, German, Chinese, and Serbian. And he currently studies Political Sciences, at Concordia University in Montreal. He recently have published his two chapbooks “The Bleeding Heart Poet” and “Love On The War’s Frontline”. With Alien Buddha Press. It is available for sale on Amazon. Most of his new and old poems are also available on his official page Bleeding Heart Poet on Facebook.

Setu, October 2018