The Jinn

Jinn – In Islamic mythology, any of a class of spirits, lower than the angels, capable of appearing in human and animal forms and influencing humankind for either good or evil.

There’s currently a jinn residing in my backyard. When the moon allows, I see him standing outside my window where the birds gather, watching me move about my home. I don’t know if he knows that I see him, though. To the untrained eye, his body looks like a newly-planted sugar maple, dressed in clumps of ill-fitting leaves. To those who don’t understand, his arms bear the curves of a shepherd’s hook on which birds find their morning meal. To those who would mock, his head is not a sinister orb of deception, broken only by menacing eyes, but a tray of sustenance for the sparrows so closely watched by God.

Appearing only at night, the jinn is unsettling and beautiful at once. It is difficult to look at him but even more difficult to turn away. 

On certain nights, the jinn influences me for good. “Happiness is already yours,” he whispers. On other nights, the jinn stokes fires of discontent. “That which you seek will never be attained,” he hisses in my ear.

In spite of his duplicitous nature, I believe the jinn understands me. He embraces my different characters and acknowledges my search for truth. However, like a physician studying the cancers of life who becomes obsolete once he finds the cure, so, too will the Jinn lose his purpose if or when I discover the truth. To this end, he will push me to both sides of the river; today, good but tomorrow, bad.

Someday, perhaps the birds will find their seeds elsewhere and the Jinn will leave this place. Someday...