the tempest

9 May 2008, 2:20 am

The dull sound of not-so-distant explosions awakens me with a jolt. Through the closed shutters, I see very large, bright flashes coming from Ras el Nab’a, where much of the fighting of today had taken place. Before going to sleep, we had sat out on the balcony, wine glasses in hand, listening to the fighting. We saw some flashes, only they were but dull sparks. Now, opening the shutters and peering out into the night, I see that the whole sky is being set alight.

What sort of weapons are they using now? I think that neither of the warring factions has an airforce, so I don’t think there could be ‘bombing’ per se. And the Israelis must be much to thrilled to see the Lebanese doing their dirty work for them while they celebrate their sixtieth anniversary to choose to intervene this early on…

A massive, unearthly crack interrupts my thoughts, and I feel like the skies above me are being brutally torn apart. Small pieces of debris being to fall lightly on the rooftops, on the street, and as they get progressively heavier and heavier, I realize that no, this is not the destruction caused by a shell, mortar or other twisted metal agent of death. This is a thunderstorm.

Never in my entire life have the sight of lightening and the sound of rain been so reassuring to me. Never had I thought that I would feel such relief at the deafening, bone-shaking rumbles of the clouds.

The winds picked up around me, the time between the sight and sound of celestial electricity became smaller and smaller and the drops of rain turned into hard pellets of ice. I knew that once again, the heavens were expressing their sheer disdain at the petty convictions of us mortals. What else could explain the bizarre phenomenon of hail in May, or the synchronization of human decay with natural disorder?

Surely, it must be the gods up there, cursing our lamentable condition, our inability to learn from the past. Surely, the thunder that appropriately replaced the sounds of today’s violence was their laughing at our foolishness…

And when they had stopped laughing, when the skies finally calmed, across the city the rifles and the RPG’s flared up again.