
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.