Rude Awakening

RUDE AWAKENING My father would say, It’s a rather bad thing when what should be hot is cold and vice versa… then he’d give the example of cold soup in winter or drinking warm water on a hot summer day and in my childhood’s innocence my young mind thought “yuck.” But now, in Juarez, I drink my kool-aid warm without refrigeration I rationalize at least I’m hydrating my body and although it’s a unseasonably chilly September there’s no gas for the boiler so my showers are cold, not “brisk” the water pelts my sleep-warmed skin and it’s a rude awakening. Still, I neither shudder or gasp for innocence is long lost and the collective prayers “libramos de mal” (mal, as in murder and mayhem) sustain a city. The evangelists say, all this heralds Christ’s coming so then surely this is the sign of the times- “los ultimos dias” the beginning of the end- the Apocalypse. Sometimes I wonder if sicarios run amok carrying AK47s are truly Biblical portents or a mere rude awakening extreme though it is- another example of humanity’s dark side sinister elements, never understood diabolical yes, though not in a supernatural way for the culprits appear “normal” the newspapers make no mention of, nor their photos reveal… horns or tail, cloven feet or fangs. * "libramos de mal" - deliver us from evil . "los ultimos dias" - the last days. "sicarios" crazed gunmen- assasins.