Flour Massacre
This bag of flour [. . .] it's
the most expensive food ever made.
~ Mohammed al-Simry, father of four
On Leap Year Day, aid trucks at last
arrive, and the crowd, having gathered
in al-Rashid Street the night before,
makes for the goods.
Once, what came before the trucks
with their sacks of flour,
before the bread to be baked
and then heaped with hummus,
before the fattoush salad,
the soups of lentils and fava beans,
the eggs or chicken,
the copper pitchers of sous,
was the anticipation of taste,
the clarity of a satisfied stomach,
eyes delighting at the sight
of knafeh and date-filled ma'mool.
It is four forty-five a.m.,
the morning of February 29,
and the trucks arrive.
So, too, do the soldiers.
Look: they are anywhere,
even everywhere,
the aid trucks are.
But these soldiers,
they make no exceptions
for the food-deprived.
They feel the hunger.
Dropped sacks of flour
dust the heads
of hundreds, there
in al-Rashid Street.
No one clamors now
for bread.
No bread
will be made this day.
_______________________________________
Fattoush is a type of Middle Eastern (Lebanese) chopped salad that uses, among other ingredients, pomegranate molasses, sumac and other herbs, mixed greens and vegetables, and toasted pita chips.
Sous, or erk sous, is a licorice drink typically imbibed during Ramadan.
Knafeh is a cheese-filled sweet made with filo dough and ma'mool are sweet cookies, often stuffed with dates.
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