Thunder & Whatnot

downtown floods (photo: Nader Daoud)

Last week's mysterious / man-made "Boom Boom Boom" (rattling the windows and streets -- more later) eventually gave way to the natural noise of wind, rain, hail, and snow. The weather kept us indoors for days and did a number on our already pathetic Internet connection. Even as I type this, the signal is waning -- five bars, now three flickering, (pause) (pause), back to four, now two...

snow in Jordan (photo: Abdullah Ayoub)

I have emails to answer. There's work to be done. Deadlines. Friends' poems to critique. Book Club questions to prepare. Etc. Etc. Plus, I'd really like to share something about the aforementioned sound, that sequential "Boom Boom Boom" that Israel eventually identified as a two-day de-mining project along the border -- --

-- -- how it came and went and came again. How people thought earthquake, airstrike(!!), this / that / the other. How women I knew called their husbands, took their children into apartments' inner rooms. How I searched online in an attempt to make sense of what I was hearing, only to lose the connection. Without a thing left to do, how I wandered into the nursery and found myself hovering over C.'s crib reciting "Boom, Boom, Boom / Mr. Brown is a Wonder. / Boom, Boom, Boom / Mr. Brown makes Thunder!" -- thinking, just make a game of it, let whatever collision this is light the air...