Artwork by Ahmed Almheiri

 

 

When Day Turned Away
By Dana Khalil Ahmad
 

 

When day turned to night,

the laborers came back

eyes sunk in hollows. They clawed

at processed meat and they clawed

at their children

when day turned away.

The beautiful women

made themselves beautiful.

They colored their weary eyes

and took off their skin, so ugly

men would pay

and their children wouldn’t starve.

 

The men and women

in silk, velvet and fur

went out to laugh

and went out to cry

at other people’s lives.

 

When day stripped away

and night cloaked the town

the creatures appeared.

 

 

Dana Khalil Ahmad is an Iraqi-Kuwaiti student in her final year of undergraduate study at the American University of Sharjah. Currently, she is majoring in International Studies and minoring in English literature. Upon graduating, she hopes to pursue a graduate degree that will combine her research interests in women in the Arab World, modern Iraqi history and politics, and postcolonial literature.