Friday, October 25, 2013

Evening at the Souq

سوق شعبي
Souq Sh'bee: The Popular Market
aka Doha's famous Souq Waqif
 
listen -
 

many calls
to prayer
horses
Bob
 
guy in green
scoops and
disposes of
what falls when
horses are out
 
wait -
 

 
horses circle tile streets
over and over and over
clip clop

 sup -
 
 
 
salad and
bread with
fried halloumi cheese
served in a pan
salty
delicious
 
too hungry
for pictures
yum

wander -
 
 
into the souq's
sparkling
clean
alleyways
 
Pashmina?
You want pashmina?
Red pashimina?
Blue pashmina?
Pink, purple, green?
Pretty pretty, pretty
pashmina?
 
need a sign:
no pashmina, thanks
 
 follow -
 

 
ladies
shopping and
old guys in
burgundy vests
moving stuff
stall to stall
here to there
by wheelbarrow
 
one sits
in his cart as
ladies
pass

 watch -
 
 
demonstration:
how to create
new
old
stuff
gifts for
the folks back home

shop -
 
 
rows of bright
haloo:
candy
 
 buy - 
 
 
hats
 
plastic shoes, dolls, ceramic camels, bobble head toys, mother of pearl boxes, book stands, tee shirts, blankets, towels, pillows, kitchen utensils, blenders, bracelets, clocks, watches, baskets, lights, lamps, clothes, pots, pans, prayer rugs, abaya, sheyla, beads, coasters

whatever you want
it's here
somewhere
probably
 
Hanging out at
Souq Sh'bee
One cool winter evening
Where it's
All Things Qatar
(and other places)
All day
Every day
 
(after 8:30am-ish
and excepting Friday mornings
or any afternoon
between noon and 4pm-ish)
 

2 comments:

Peggy said...

There may be malls, and new old stuff in the Suq ...but the stamp of what we see in other arab suqs (Cairo, etc.) is also on the Doha Suq...

Charles W. Hedrick said...

A poem that mixes pictures, photographs, sounds, and words--very creative media!
Love Dad