Fourth of July

The streetlights flicker, set to humming
Like mosquitoes in the amber night
Of tree frogs and fireworks, unforked lightning,
Spine-tickling rivulets of sweat.
 
This is the stuff, I think, this the life  
I recall from my youth by the ocean,  
Days of marsh grass and the sun’s gold-leaf,
Heinekens, Merits, the soulful motion
 
Of lights across the bay. A couple there
Sits down to the Mets, the moon moves on,
The smoke from the barbecue drifts clear,
But then a coal ignites again.
 
All at once the heart leaps higher
To think of us rekindling as fire.