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Fourth of July: A villanelle

To the editor:

July fourth’s fireworks have just begun

But it’s Jan. 6 this night invokes

Boom, boom. How many in the crowd brought guns?

Earth warms, hate grows, all compromise is shunned

The dark sky fills with forest fire smoke

July Fourth’s fireworks have just begun

How many here jeered June Nineteenth just done?

Or think what’s happened since Emancipation work?

Boom, boom. How many in the crowd brought guns?

The rockets’ glares are not what leave us stunned:

It’s truth ignored; mob violence provoked

July Fourth’s fireworks have just begun

Around our flag are fabrications spun

That belie the unity it should invoke

Boom, boom. How many in the crowd brought guns?

I fear the noise that numbs our good intentions

And the false, blind flares of ignorance it stokes

July Fourth’s fireworks have just begun

Boom, boom. How many in the crowd brought guns?

James B. Kobak, Jr.

Keene Valley

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