Voodoo Rain sparks and spirals as you light
Fuses on the Neighbor Haters. You watch Banshee
Shrieks burn as bottle rockets scream at cars
Passing by our neighborhood at the wrong time.
It’s chaos here: Fourth of July and everybody
Drunk on a bicycle, trying to evade Super
Soaker blasts and hose nozzle spurts
Being shot from balconies on First Street.
Red skin, white shutters, drowned bluegrass
Suffocates beneath slip-n-slide hooplah
As inflatable elephants splash dribble
On chests; isn’t it ridiculous
What we do to show we want the day
Off? Stretch balloons over the spigot
Lip and let side-of-the-house-water gush
Inside neon pink plastic splash bombs.
After everyone’s soaked and plastered,
Real havoc is split and splintered
Like a tree made of light
Exploding for a moment.
Let him crash, and crash, and crash
Against the darkness of the night.