07.04.06
rocket’s red glare
…fireworks explode outside my bedroom window, on the sidewalk below… the report and rhythm of these heavy duty "block busters" sound not like the tinny "pop-pop-pop" of celebration, but more like… being shelled…
…this nation was born of war, and measures its chronology as much by its conflicts as by any other benchmark… still, its recent wars no doubt color my interpretation of the revelry in the streets below… i can’t help but think that. halfway ’round the world, our brothers and sisters in arms celebrate this day under skies thick with the smoke of actual mortar rounds and gunfire…
…how would each of us feel, I wonder, if instead of fake rocket blasts from illegal fireworks, our streets were overrun with the random violence deemed necessary to "democratize" Iraq?