Last night, I sat on the floor with our trembling dogs. Neighborhood “Einsteins” were out with their fireworks. Yes, it’s Buy One Get One Free, at the seedy FIREWORKS tent, set up in the empty parking lots of strip malls all over America.
The news is written on a hand scrawled sign held down by sand bags against the tent wall. Red and blue letters on a white background. A brown box under the lettering, coming apart in the middle with three lines indicating the explosion. So there would be no mistake.
Time is running out. Only one day until Independence Day, and they are pulling out all the stops. There are little flags everywhere waving on little wooden sticks to inspire you.
All that’s left to do is wait for the dark. Then send your FIREWORKS into the night to shower light on a people lost on the sea of their own innocence, starving on the dwindling rations of their exceptionalism.
Feel the report hum in the empty place in your chest. Yes, right there, where the dogs feel it. They have come to huddle close to me. Press their bodies against me for comfort.
As though I could make it stop. As though I knew when it would be over. As though comfort were mine to give.
Charles Oberkehr 