une annee sans lumiere

on Sunday the president came .. and so on Saturday morning there was an explosion.

i awoke to silence .... well, except for the rooster crowing and the pheasants squawking outside my window. [flick] no lights. no electricity. no hot water. nothing unusual. i dressed and left the house, and ran into the pastor’s wife:

“cooking oil ... they did it for the cooking oil! did you hear the explosion this morning?”
“no, what happened?”
“someone stole the oil from the transformer and it exploded. we’ll be without electricity for a year! they took the oil to fry chips to sell during the president’s visit.”

the president came yesterday. thousands attended. some ate chips. some of the same will arrive at the hospital today with food poisoning ... gawd knows what’s in transformer oil

when the power’s out
in the heart of man
take it from your heart
put it in your hand