Seeb Road by Night

Not far from the sea

In the north of Oman

A dreary two-lane road

Winds through the gravelled sand flats

Dark and heavily trafficked

Lined by a few scraggly dusty palms

A scene unworthy of a painter’s brush

And yet

And yet

Each night on this darkened stage

A tiny drama worthy of our time

Two boys, all of eight years old

Fan a makeshift charcoal grill

With a piece of cardboard

Grease-laced smoke rises from the grill 

And flames sometimes hover

Above the glowing gray-black coals

Lighting up their earnest faces

Cheap cuts of skewered lamb

Darken and sizzle on the grill

And cars pass by

This little stand

Between two palms

So dark it isn’t seen

So cars pass by

For more than one hour 

I watched them brown the lamb 

And set it aside

Waiting and hoping

Their obscure labor

Would cause a car or two to stop

Their expectations low

Sent out by their parents

Who knows how much they count on 

This hopeless, little stand

Who does their marketing?

Their advertising? 

© Bill Sypher, 2014

"Street Urchins"
oil on canvas
by Karl Witkowski
from Wikimedia Commons