TFR Home Page TFR Home PageContents ContentsPrev. Page Prev. PageNext Page Next PageComments Comments

Fourth of July, 1992
By David Prestidge

Seven shots and a tonic later
(My God, I've had enough)
Venus twitched, nervously, then ducked
Behind a cloud
Just before our mayor, belt cinched like a bank
Across a lap drawing strength from middle
Age, says
"A Tribute to a Star Spangled Flag
This Star Spangled Night"

You see them before it hits you.
Incandescent, benign, gray phantoms
Trail vertically upward and,
Feigning non-existence,
Scatter blue-lidded barbs
That impale a tattered skein
Of velvet shadow.

I knew this man. We passed out tracks for our church.
Our pockets filled with pennies, big reds, black cats.
Unconfirmed men. Concealing our interest
We showered be-ribboned, half woman
With model napalm.

This no longer occurs.
(and our town the safer for it)
Those young girls, now women,
Offered several solutions--
None of which augmented our modest militia.

So now we get the safe show.
We rape the stars, their natural glow
Spoiled by municipal decree.
Yes, it's a safe show--But
Your ears ring hours afterwards and
Your hair smells of cinder, flint, sulfur.
And the trajectory!
The light!
Like light, drawn from a rasping iode,
Casting vague haloes over a glass sea.
No girls run for cover.

God will bless our town
Our hunkered down town
Leaving tracks in a crowded sky
Like distilled evolution.




TFR Home Page | Submission Guidelines | Frequently Asked Questions | Sign Our Guest Book | Contents | Donations
Workshops | Event Calendar | TFR Background | How to Contact Us | Editors and Authors Only | Privacy Statement


© Copyright 1997, 2007, The Fairfield Review Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Document last modified on: 09/07/1999

<script>
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

ga('create', 'UA-22493141-2', 'auto');
ga('send', 'pageview');

</script>