Happy Fourth of July

Last night I heard the fireworks
Bursting into the dark, cooling air.
They sounded like gunfire
And anti-aircraft shells terrifying
Any sane living thing.

Down the road in the park
The coyotes howled in protest
At the celebration of death
And destruction cloaked in
Red, white and blood.

Somewhere a child cowers
In a cold dark corner flinching
Every time the ground shakes,
Every time the piercing scream
Of mortar shells cuts the night.

Somewhere a parent weeps
Over the lifeless body of a child,
Innocence still born
Never fulfilling life’s promise.
Hope forever crushed beneath

The General’s boot.
Have another beer, roll another
Joint and turn up the music
So we can’t hear the sobs
Of the hungry and the dispossessed.

Happy Fourth of July.
Aren’t we lucky to live
in the Land Of the Free?
Free to rejoice while

The cries of suffering
grow louder
With each shower
of sparkling light.

Scott DuRoff   7/4/2013