fish

by Dinan Alasad

nile tilapia on Friday
and the house smells 
like the river.
my father knows the sea,
he can spot the North Star 
on any sky.

when he was my age,
he spent months on a ship.
I remember the faded pictures,
him softer in the face,
half-smiling in stained overalls.
holding his guitar,
like a life-jacket.

today, 
he picks at my fish for me,
piles the flesh
in front of me.
“be careful 
about the thorny bits”
he says.
“I, also, couldn’t look 
dead things in the eye”
he doesn’t say. 


____

Dinan Alasad is a writer, translator and econometrician from Khartoum, Sudan. Her writing has appeared on RE:, 1919, The Drinking Gourd and Trad Magazine. You can find more of her work on her website whenever she gets around to launching it, in shaa Allah. Follow her Twitter @DinanAlasad to catch this imminent launch and any other updates.