The Colors of Darkness

(to the tune of Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkle)

Goodbye, silence, my old friend

Been interrupted once again
Because the sound of a drum beating*
Entered my window while I was sleeping
And the echo that was forced into my ear
Sounds so near
Woke to the colors of darkness

Find my phone and press a key

4am, it’s so early
‘Neath the weak glow of my solar light
(it’s dying after being used last night)
Now my eyes are strained trying to read some trash fiction
The light’s too dim
Back to the colors of darkness
 
And in the lack of light I see
A camel spider on my knee
Bugs invading my mosquito net
Bugs on my pillow and in my blanket
Oh wait, no, they’re just hallucinations from
The Mefliam**
I curse the colors of darkness

"Fool," said I, "now you’ve gone mad"
But being crazy’s not so bad
Writing words that don’t have sense or aim
Thinking thoughts I don’t know how they came
To my brain, confused and upside-down,
Swirling
In the colors of darkness

So I get up out of bed
Need to escape from my own head
Locate a candle, try to light the wick
The match is crap, it fizzes out so quick***
Throw the box across the room, giving up, go and sit on my porch outside
Wait for sunrise
To witness the colors of darkness…
 
*initiation rites—the Mozambican equivalent of a bar mitzvah—consist of a lot of beating on plastic buckets, at all hours of the night

**the anti-malaria medication I take sometimes gives me hallucinations

 
***poorly made matches: the flame goes out in the time it takes to travel the distance between the box and the candle, ie about 5 inches
 
Dedicated to the Liebendorfers, who lent me a solar lantern that I use every single day -- and which I have to replace when I get back, because it most likely will not survive 2 years being knocked off the table and accidentally dropped into my bucket bath