<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Fourth of July</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""> </b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">The tension began a few days early.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">We’d stand on chairs, </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">pull down the big quart jars</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">hands barely meeting around thick waists.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Grandma would punch holes in the lids;</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">and we’d sit stoically in the yard</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">waiting for lightning bugs to roost</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">a premonition of the fireworks to come.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">I couldn’t bear to keep them </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">on my dresser overnight;</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">couldn’t square my momentary pleasure </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">with the finality of their death. </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Finally, the day would dawn.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Already hot, we’d crank the droning attic fan</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">and down our oatmeal, </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">hearts already in the park.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">We’d lay out blankets early on the hill</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">stow tin-foiled bowls of slaw in shady roosts</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">while neighbors paved the lawn </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">like frontline troops.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Then Dad would set the funny olive cap upon his head</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">and stride off with the other men </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">marching to a place called war</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">I didn’t understand.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">This dark detour from mundane life</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">from softball games and Sunday school</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">from right and wrong, from black and white</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">cast deep furrows in my mind.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">I recall the swell of patriotic hearts,</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">my mother’s high vibrato,</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">the rough weave of the flags we clutched, </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">the myths we were suckled on.</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Sandra Anfang</span><br class=""></body></html>