Taji Nights
In the wee hours of the morning, I like to go outside and listen to the muezzin lead the call to prayer over a loudspeaker in the distance. Its warm and dusty out here tonight, but there’s a calm wind blowing that familiar gunpowder scent around. Suddenly, as if he was waiting his turn, a cricket chimes in immediately after the prayer is done, reminding me of summer nights in the South.
I’m at a cool place in my head, at this time, as tonight there were no outcries of “INCOMING” blaring from the PA speakers within my vicinity. The ground is firm beneath my feet with no rumbling sounds of explosions and heavy gunning in the distance. I close my eyes for a brief moment… What a perfect time to think of my sweetheart’s smile, my friends and family back home, and thank God for this opportunity.
The bats are having a feast on flying insects, and as the moonlight strikes their wings… They kind of look like large butterflies moving about in the darkness. Helicopters transform into huge dragonflies as they come and go in pairs. The engines of the unmanned drones are like the sounds of a gnats wings. This is, indeed, the most calm part of my shift each night. On the other side of the world, the smells of barbecue, sounds of laughter, and good music are probably filling the air in South Carolina. If I were there, I’d probably be posted up somewhere, or cruising the streets with the seats back playing some music from one of Lauryn Hill’s live performances.
I don’t consider myself a daydreamer… just a man cursed with a creative mind that gets no rest. I respect this land’s holy history, and loathe the fact that it is now plagued with scenarios of struggle, violence, and gentrification in the name of God and the quest for financial stability. Every environment presents an opportunity for reflection, and if even only for a second, an escape from the hardships and dangers of the reality that I’m in the middle of a war zone. There is beauty everywhere, we, the individuals, are responsible for uncovering it. Sometimes that’s the only way to have peace of mind during the toils of desolation.
(draft)
