Kathleen Boyle’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications including Zyzzyva, Poet Love, Pong, and many others. She works as a public defender.

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Table of Contents

Fourth of July

by Kathleen Boyle

I.
                        thirteen guns and bunting

the bicentennial    we sit on the curb as Petaluma parades by         we wear patriotic hats

        three-legged race    waterballoon toss    sack race

at sundown         an anthem of bottle rockets across the street at the Millward’s

        the smell of chlorine still on my skin    from the years we went to the pool

                blueberries    strawberries    raspberries

II.

                        the second summer  of Gary’s leukemia

a gasoline truck crashes into the off ramp at East Washington

    the rest of us see the plumes from the house

you drive right through the fire        you arrive         somehow

    and we eat squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta and herbs        bar-bar-qued salmon

outside in the back yard         quiet clouds of eerie smoke

                        every year you buy sparklers    

    pass them out for all of us to wave against the dark

III.
                        already unnoticed the days are shrinking

    life     liberty     pursuit

one year we float down the Russian river        holding each others’ innertubes

    as the older boys jump off the bridge

               
                        there is the smell of charcoal burning