That Old VHS
for Umahmad

It cost me $100 to convert that old VHS into a video file…
I had no idea what was on it
except the title promised, “Road to Petra.”

I hoped it would show me her face
just to see her face once more
would be more than worth it.

I had to wait a week and in that time
I fantasized all the wonderful things
I would see again twenty two years later.

How disappointing to find, there was only
a close up of a flicking horse tail,
rear legs chugging ahead, through the surreal gorge
now deemed  a New Wonder of The World.

She sat to my left in the front seat
behind the driver
my 2 brothers sat behind us
and the camera, unknown to me
was capturing just what it could see
as I had no idea it was turned on..

Sometimes you’d see the ground, sometimes the walls
of this little opening…a narrow road
that Nature had  carved out of a mountain.

How disappointing, not a face captured along the road
as the cart bumped and swayed …
but what was hidden in this old tape
was her laughing voice again
as we conversed in Arabic

I held my breath.
There she was I heard her, alive again..in 2004
and laughing and joking with me..

In one instant the bumping camera caught our feet
squished together on the floor of the cart
Omg is that not worth $100?
What price??? to share once more,
in our closeness and in her living laughter and joy?

Karima Hoisan
March 13, 2026
Costa Rica