Lahouh
Asma Al-Masyabi
my father
is cooking
bread
/lahouh/
stove-bread
pressing down
on the pan’s lid,
the condensation
slowly beading
on the glass,
we wait
for the batter
to turn
to bread
he leans over
lifts it up
releasing the steam,
a wave of warm air
in his face
he
slides the lahouh
onto the plate
and tells me a story
of him
young,
with his father
and how they traveled
to hudadayda
every month
every few months
how they would go
by car
or
by plane
and how,
when they flew
into the city
by the red sea,
in the country
my father was born in
the doors
would open
to the heat
of a desert
by an ocean
and the humid,
warm air
would overwhelm him
cooking lahouh
reminds me of that,
he tells me,
already leaning over,
batter poured,
waiting
for the next piece
of bread
Asma Al-Masyabi is a high school student in Colorado, dreaming big dreams and reading good books. She has been previously published in Girls Right the World, Navigating the Maze, and the Riza Press Journal.