Fourth of July Day of Heroes

Day of the Heroes

by Mary Naylor

While trees dance and bend in the dark,

Folds of black velvet, robe the night,

As on a carousel of light, it embarks,

Under a shimmering canopy of starry delight.

Do you hear celestial music deep inside,

Like a violin using your soul for a bow,

Spilling trembling notes of joys and sighs;

You smile and weep, yet the music still flows!

The shore lays like parchments of old.

I press my palms to the creamy beach;

And see freedom's words scribed in heroes' blood.

Stretching across the stained sands, for freedom I reach.

I look up at the exploding skies,

And I hear the crackles and the booms,

The shouts and laughter and happy cries,

And, then, I see heroes' faces, loom in the fumes.