4th of July

 

Don’t get me wrong
I’m as 4th of July as they come

 

But when it comes to the
4th of July
The real no shit
4th of July
When it comes to celebrating it…
what do I do?

 

I’ll tell you what I do.

 

I get as far away from the
fireworks
as I
can.

 

As it is I live
at the edge of a
national forest…

 

Why is that, son?

 

I’ll tell you why,
general.

 

I get as far away from the
sights and sounds of
fireworks
because they…

 

Don’t say it, son.

 

Because they…

 

Son, to say it makes it so. To say it
gives it a strength over you
it shouldn’t have.
You’re better than that!
We trained you better than that!

*

 

Do you want me to tell you again
the story?

 

How when I was a general,
they came asking:
How fit is your division?

 

and why am I saying they???
everyone
damn
well
knows
at that level
people are on a
first name basis.

 

Jim, they told me.

 

Chrissake, there I am again with that they
when
every
one
of
us
knows
damn
well
knows
at that level they will know you
on a first name basis.

 

Jim, Don asked me.
Jim, how would you rate your division?

 

And by now, the way he was asking me,
the way he was
throat filling emotions
asking me,
I knew something was up.

 

Something was fixing to
shit the fan.

 

General, I said,
I looked him dead in the eyes.
General,
General, I says,
looking him
center of the eyes I am looking him,
Fellow General Ivan Don Denisovich Demarco
i says:
Now you damn well know
my division isn’t worth
two shits
you’ve known it hasn’t been worth
two shits
for months
and it’s going to remain so worth
until I get to the bottom of this inquiry
so help me god.

 

That’s a nice story, general,
but I was just going to say
the fireworks
sound like fighting.

 

*

 

And you know how I know I’m sane out there, general?
Because the peacocks complain about it, too.

 

I don’t follow you, son.

 

They shoot their guns
from the waist
at the dancing shadows
or at the stars
until I see green.

 

But the thunder
puts them in their place, general.
The thunder and the rain.
And the peacocks
complain about it
so I know I’m sane.

 

That’s why I always pray
for rain on the
4th of July
out here in the woods,
general.

 

I pray for rain on the
4th of July
because it’s not the same
firing rounds
from one living room
into another.