Transforming Voices

The following poem won honorable mention in the Writer's Digest Writing Contest, 2008

Taps
by
Catherine Al-Meten

Each night, just a few minutes before 10:00, I move from whatever I am
doing and stand on my front porch. On the small landing at the top of the
brick staircase, I stand in the evening chill looking out, waiting. Regardless
the weather, I wait in anticipation, looking up at the clear, dark starry sky
or out across the fog-shrouded hillside over the rooftops. At precisely 10:00
P.M., I hear the clear, plaintive sound of the bugler’s voice as “Taps” begins
at the Presidio. Across the hill top the song of the bugle resounds its deep,
mournful tones, echoing. The beauty of this stirring moment is unlike any
other for me. “Day is done” the words come to mind, “Gone the sun, from
the lakes, from the hills, from the seas.” I listen as the tune echoes out
across the safe, little neighborhood of tiny homes nestled securely,
comfortably on this hillside. “All is well, safely rest” the bugle sounds
assuring us “God is nigh.”

And each night as I repeat this ritual, my heart stirs deeply as I
remember those of you who are far from home, fighting battles on distant
shores under desert skies, away from the peace and safety of your homes,
and I whisper a prayer of thanks and a plea for protection and grace for all
God’s children. May we each hear the call of the bugler reassuring us that
“All is well, safely rest…God is nigh.”