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July 4th
- Red Hen Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
34 July 4th It doesn’t attack as scripture details, with a hammer and a kiss. It is not the cankered worm, the scythe rusted, the silks of the dancer or the bag of coin discovered in sand. Instead it is dull, it prefers the back door, the porch, the calico curtains. It is a bluebird on the wire, a smiling snake in the crib, the last hand of pinochle. It is a slice of watermelon. It is the face behind the mortgage desk, the blank face carrying the ball, a man staring at a sprinkler in disbelief. It is the moon rocket and Roman candle. It is the polished auto. It is the newspaper. It is every sticky plate licked clean by a mongrel dog. It is a beer bottle and a new blouse. 35 It is membership in the club of the cross, a shovel forgotten in the garden, a shopping cart, the crisp salute and framed flag of achievement. It is the barbecue of diplomacy and its white cloth napkins. Resist this at all cost. Become a moving target, a musket charged with defiance. Reject their shame. Eliminate every rumor you were taught. Forget each whisper. Forget the law. Listen only to the tongues of boots. Live in cathedrals, they are everywhere and empty. Resist these others regardless of consequence. [34.203.221.104] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 22:21 GMT) 36 Don’t commemorate them, don’t vote for them. Don’t have cocktails to honor their stale jokes and staler agreements. They are vipers. Your friends are not friends. Your real family you have hardly dared to imagine, but you may seek them out. Live not in spite, but oblivious of these others. You needn’t think of them again nor adorn your compromise in the wardrobe of derision. Live your life or assuredly it will be taken from you, not by chains but by necklaces and serving knives. Pledge allegiance only to the song you’ve helped to strangle, the song of the spirit’s recompense. 37 Walk straight into the laughing sun. Go on, this moment. Believe it. Freedom requires only the faintest courage. Leap for destruction like a toad. Do it blissfully. A whole sweet language of ruin awaits and not one of them can speak it. But you can. You can flourish like a rare thing. You can begin today to be magnificent. ...