Canada Day Fireworks
       July 1, 2020

Alight in the distance
our nation’s persistence
screams out, in a fiery dance:
misplaced explosions
of pent-up emotions
from those who’ve been given a chance.
 
Red-and-white outfits
outshouting the conflicts:
‘We’re proud and we’re here and they’re not. 
Just give us this day!
You can’t take it away
cause we won and we didn’t get caught.’
 
Unlit in the foreground
our poor and our poor-bound
scream out, but we’ve heard it before.
Repeated assertions
of public desertions 
don’t shock or evoke anymore.
 
But these fires are compelling.
My sureness now quelling,
by drum and by clap and by spark.
For I can’t help but stare
At this boastful affair.
It’s so bright and the night is so dark.