Daddy's Fireworks
Daddy shook and trembled
and squeezed his eyes shut tight,
as we ooohed and aaahed at fireworks
in the summer sky that night.
We squealed and hopped with laughter
as mommy held him some more,
when we asked why she told us;
“It reminds him of a war.”
On those nights so long ago
he heard the booms and thuds,
streaks of light were aimed at them
his comrades and his buds.
I remember that Independence day
in nineteen eighty eight,
when he jumped at every sound
unable to escape.
We didn’t understand it then
being only six and eight,
how memories of an old old war
carried such crushing weight.
Until Grandma told us of the year
she almost lost her son,
on a muddy battlefield
they just called Vietnam.
Copyright © Bob Quinn | Year Posted 2017
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