It’s over two hundred miles
from Amman, Jordan
to the Iraqi border,
The burning red sunlight
smacks you right in the face
as you travel the entire way,
Concealed in pitch-black, the police and armed forces run over life all through the countryside, on the blue roads through the tunnels of the leafy trees planted on both sides,
It would be rather egotistical of me
to think I even mattered,
we all know timing is everything,
when you're dead things stay the same,
Jéanpaul Ferro is a 4-time Pushcart Prize nominee. His short fiction and poetry has appeared in Cortland Review, Arts & Understanding Magazine, Portland Monthly, Identity Theory, Hawaii Review, Southern Cross Review, and others. His poetry has been featured on WBAR radio in New York City and his short fiction has appeared in The Plaza’s Masterpiece Series.