The fireworks don’t seem the same this year:

A January 6 dims our Julies

And all those lies still echo in our ears.

–

There may be picnics, revelry and beer

But falsehoods haunt the flares that fill the sky

The fireworks don’t feel the same this year.

–

The sparklers launch, their embers fall like tears;

Red rockets roar, colored patterns fade and die

And all those lies still echo in our ears.

–

The same old show; but delight now tinged with fear

From habit we applaud the pageantry

But the fireworks don’t feel the same this year

–

Not our country’s birth but death seems near

Evanescent as the summer’s fireflies

When all those lies still echo in our ears

–

Explosions. Noise. Is insurrection here?

Reverberations holding dread surprise

As long as lies still echo in our ears

The fireworks won’t seem the same this year.

–

James B. Kobak Jr.

Keene Valley