Something I wrote ages ago:<\/p>\n
I had an Africa flashback this morning, waking up the warm, stifling,
\nachingly familiar humidity. When I opened my front door the cool damp
\nair washed a decade away, and I could hear the chatter and rustle of
\nweaver-birds in among the dew-soaked banked fire of the flame trees’
\nlong red leaves.<\/p>\n
The drums that beat a pulse through my sleep all night are silent,
\ndancers spent, their passage through the other world closed by the
\ndawn. I can hear in the distance the call to prayer: “There is no God
\nbut God . . . come to prayer; prayer is better than sleep.” And
\ncloser an old tire rim and a piece of rebar are a carillon, calling
\nthe faithful to break their fast on the fruit of the true vine and the
\nbread of life.<\/p>\n
I can feel the cool tiles on the veranda under my feet, and the
\nephemeral breeze, delicious now because it will soon turn to rising,
\nshimmering curtains of liquid fire. Have you ever been so hot you
\nshivered? That’s what the sun is like in Africa.<\/p>\n
Breakfast is a grapefruit the size of a volleyball, bursting with
\nbittersweetness. Yesterday’s baguette, and wild intoxicating honey
\nthat killer bees distill from the riotous flowers that sprawl along
\nour garden wall. Juice of oranges bought from a fruit-seller a minute
\nago.<\/p>\n
I only remember good things, of course :-) Never there being no
\nwater, the choking red dust, the drain and fatigue of the heat, bugs,
\ndiseases…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Something I wrote ages ago: I had an Africa flashback this morning, waking up the warm, stifling, achingly familiar humidity. When I opened my front door the cool damp air washed a decade away, and I could hear the chatter and rustle of weaver-birds in among the dew-soaked banked fire of the flame trees’ long … Continue reading “Dog Days”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}