I sit
A comfortable distance
From the violence
Listening to bias news
How could I truly choose
Between one death or another
Murder of a child or a mother
Humans trying to survive
If you can stand
Then stand for life
Tag: war
Picturesque
A vague memory
A picturesque scene
As the world was ending
I dared to dream
Of the life I have now
Of what seemed so out of reach
The image solidified
As I laid on this beach
…….
If you know my story, you know that I was born in Iraq and escaped the war around 2008. I feel so blessed by the small things and the big things in my life right now. Grateful for it all.
Here’s some AI art of my creation inspired by this poem. Going from war to calm.
Stimulus Check Equivalent in Iraq
For hours, in lines we waited
Feet bare
Flies and mosquitoes hung in the air
The afternoon sun could not be kind
As it left no shelter for us to hide
Until we got our sacks of flour and some rice
Enough to fill our bellies and dampen our cries
Soldiers
I met a soldier back in Iraq
That let me hold his gun
He had named Darlene
I was barely fifteen
But he trusted me then
In a war zone when
A mistake could mean a life
I think God made poetry by keeping us alive
Poetry Reading
The Spell
I used to trust the shield
I’d create around me
As she told me
سلام و قول من رب رحيم
I told myself those words
Over and over
As I passed a terrorist stop
As I passed the bombed car
As I closed my eyes to sleep
…
But now I’m safe
Away from it all
And I say those words again
Salamun wa qaulun min rabin raheem
“Peace from a merciful God”
And I hope to rest
Forgetting what I can not forget
Simple
Shadows to a light I can’t find
The soldier standing
I stood behind
A metal door
Bullet holes in the wall
Of my grandma’s house
Simpler time
When I wished I knew
How to say hello
Without getting shot
.
.
Image Credit HERE
Lightening
On top of the world
We stood
Or so we thought
On the dorm’s rooftops
We slept
Explosions lit the sky
No thunder to fear
Just man’s lightening growing near
In time to get a shuteye
[That’s my Baghdad in 2007]
Letter to Baghdad| Short Poem
She swallowed the smoke and the bombs away
She exploded turning to shards that day
Baghdad I’m sorry for the burden you had to carry
Souls exploding and imploding that you bury
They don’t know the beauty that you used to be
The singing and dancing in your streets
The way the ground felt so safe and secure
Baghdad I don’t know you anymore
.
.
Image Credit HERE
Stranger Paths 
