Remember your childhood Fourth of July fireworks, the wonder and mystery of still night air and bursting flame?

Wish I could re-live those enchanted moments …  And here’s my adult take: if you decide to attend a fireworks display, remember to wear hearing protection (ear plugs). Those explosions are loud and can cause permanent hearing loss. That’s a fact, but it sure takes away some of the magic …

 

Fireworks

gunpowder breeze

scent of children

daddy holding hands

lights exploding in the air mysterious.

Tell me about the secrets of the flame

about the holding of hands

and how it ended.

 

Remember fire and light

the soft air of a summer night

the last fading percussion

of a great flower blossoming

over the windy trees.

 

Imagine thunder in the dark

the swift presence of rain

thickening smoke

the smell of the crisp, burned air.

 

And one more wild bud bursting

directly above us, falling all around us

one more for the bright red heart

before the last small fires of childhood

are extinguished.