Sand and Steel - Field Artillery Training

I just came back from army reserve duty doing a few days of field artillery training. December is definitely not the best time of the year to hang around in the deserts of southern Israel.

Pros: the guys at artillery battalion 8157, the endless wind-sculptured untamed view, the undisturbed round rainbows, the unpolluted night sky, and the extra time to think.

Cons: missing the family, the extreme cold, the threatening weather, the dirt on your hands, the sand in your eyes, and the extra time to think.

My Hebrew is much better than my English (which I mostly got from watching episodes of MacGyver), but I think this came out ok:


~
The son of autumn starts to mumble, sending his amoeba fingers through a cloak of mist, reaching for the open neck of the unsuspecting sun too busy melting away into the hundred shades of the foam of the sea.

A long metal snake sails through the vast sandy plain claiming its territory with a spray of gasoline; its camouflaged scales are moaning and clashing in a mythical fencing duel of a thousand brave knights.

A frowning cloud roars an ice-cold command, and its army of drops silently forages the city, transforming stone into marble, asphalt into granite, a shattered street lamp into a treasure of diamonds.

The steel serpent raises its head to the rhythm of drums of adrenalin rush, praying to the lord of man-made thunder, spitting gifts from Prometheus across the pastel horizon, carving coffee trails in the pale porcelain of the Milky Way.

Motion-blurred figures sniff the wet ground through cracks in the pavements, howling to the ivory moon through arrow slits in their Babel glass castles. Skyscrapers piercing through heaven; angels bleeding tears into the winds of the west; chain tracks as far as the eye can see.

Rust in peace ol’ tank.
Scrub the gray ol’ man.
Let us have our rainbows again.

~~~
p.s. Isn't Natalie Portman the ultimate proof to Intelligent Design?

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Welcome back and thanks very much for your service.

Uri Kalish said...

:) Thanks!

TOMAS said...

While writing with the dictionary,I am hard to comment, but one is the obvious - your post is much more than just ok.
I set back in awe towards just the amazing world that was revealed to us by your post.
Wow... !!!! Happy New Year!

EJB said...

do they issue you Stillsuits?

Uri Kalish said...

@thomas,
Thanks, you're too kind :)

@ejb,
So weird! Maybe it's the desert, but we actually talked about these suits from Dune.

EJB said...

The graphic on your post conjured up the image of Fremen in stillsuits (to me anyway). But if you were going to choose, I'm sure you would have preferred the Mech Infantry suits from Starship Troopers!!

Krokodil Ngwenya said...

No, I reckon Jason Bourne is the ultimate proof of intelligent design - or if not at least of very very hot design.

Anonymous said...

Glad you are well, Uri...boy are we worlds away-thanks for sharing.

Pinoy Wit said...

have a great new year uri! you're a far greater proof of intelligent design than portman. :)

Nature Nut /JJ Loch said...

A beautiful post. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Glad you're back!

JJ :D

Uri Kalish said...

Glad to be back!
Thank you all!