‘Labyrinthine Bag’ and Other Poetry by Wael Almahdi

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Labyrinthine Bag

My wife, bless her heart, went and bought me a bag
with tons of compartments, and pouches, and pockets.
But searching for stuff is a chore and a drag
it takes me forever to locate my dockets.
I don’t mean to whine, and I do hate to rag:
my suffering eyes want to vacate their sockets.

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Little Egos

Little kids need little egos
To be fed and given love.

Icky grown-ups with big egos
Need a smite from high above.

When a kid says “see my drawing!”
Though it sucks, I’ll aah and ooh;

But with grown-ups, there’s no hawing—
I’ll just say “your work is poo.”

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Wael Almahdi is a poet based in Bahrain. His work has been published or is forthcoming in ArabLit Quarterly, Snakeskin, The Knight Letter, Blue Minaret, and the Journal for Higher Criticism.