To Mamma on the Fourth of July

by Alice Feeley, RDC

Last night fireworks broke through the trees,

Red, green gold, white,

Then shot over the water

In front of our back porch. I wept

As the tallest scaled dark sky.

I was thinking of you,

Looking out our casement windows toward Prospect Park,

Hoping to see ab explosion of light

Against downtown Brooklyn night.

I was thinking of you

Center of our parties on the Fourth.

First to take a hotdog,

Wondering how I’d made gazpacho

When you didn’t know how.

Those parties haven’t happened since you died.

I’ve looked for you

In the holiday night sky

But didn’t find you until this morning, early,

When a full throated red robin

Perched, singing on the fence.

It looked ready to take on the world.

A new green butterfly seed

Was in its beak

And it held its head

Just the way you did

When you entered a room.