Fireworks

Photo by Saketh Garuda on Unsplash

Freedom bursts bursts forth
raucous, confident, proud, bright,
brash, colorful, explosive.
America.

Freedom self-combusts, backfires,
ignites, explodes, implodes,
full of sound and fury.
America.

Freedom lights the night air
with shock and awe
of musket fireworks,
of cannon, tank, B52, cruise missile,
drone, napalm, mushroom cloud
fireworks.

Through the perilous fight,
bombs bursting in air.

The terrified cower in dark corners,
shake like dogs, thunderstruck,
scatter like birds from safe roosts,
taking flight in smoke-filled skies.

They tread trails of tears;
ride rails to a fugitive freedom,
unchained, singing,
singing of freedom,
railroaded,
up the river,
they rage in Rikers and Parchman,
Angola and Sing Sing,
from Abu Ghraib's parched desert,
among the deserted in Guantanamo;
they ride rails to a fugitive freedom,
to the river;
wash up on the banks of Rio Grande,
or fall in the desert, parched,
dying of thirst in
America.

Bombs bursting in air.
Our flag was still there.

Say, can you see?
America
in a Kentucky meadow, bursting forth,
raucous, confident, proud, bright,
brash, colorful, explosive, free, diverse,
interconnected and at peace ...
America.

Rick Axtell has taught Religion at Centre College in Danville Kentucky for 28 years. Previously, he was Director of Louisville United Against Hunger and a case manager with homeless men at St. Vincent DePaul. He served on the board of Witness for Peace and has participated in over 20 WFP delegations to Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua. He is currently directing Centre’s study abroad program in Merida Mexico for a year, where he loves life with his dog Jake who is now chasing Yucatecan iguanas rather than Kentucky squirrels. Fireworks was originally published under the title “Fireworks 2021”.

(c) 2022 Rick Axtell