It rained all day today
The snap-pop of amateur fireworks
Replaced by rolling thunder
Any lit fuse, a damp squib
Any pyrotechnics, gunpowdery mush
Is it unpatriotic to suggest
Am I a downer for thinking
Would it make me a bad person to feel
Joy?
Fewer limbs will be blown off
Emergency rooms breathing a relieved sigh
Joined by those they might bankrupt
Dogs will not spend the night cowering
Under assault from forces they can’t grasp
Fewer fires to be started
Less siding melted
No hungry sparks drifting downward
Those are all well and good
But I think the most joy comes from
The idea that with the year we have had
The decade we have had as a country
We don’t deserve celebrations
Perhaps a celebration of wild dangers
Explosive death from nowhere
Beggaring injuries
Reckless abandon
Is what we deserve
Perhaps my joy is such
That with it all rain-drowned
We avoid the celebration we earned

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