July 4th, 2013, in Sentence Fragments

 


A long, good day, filled with laundry and garden mulch and hot dogs and swimming and the biggest sunburn you ever did see, with friends emerging from the lake in a nimbus of surprise, with a husband who does hard things to protect his family.  A day for a raccoon-shaped space in our basement freezer, for a nighttime run in the dark through a path of butter-and-eggs, spread thick, shin deep, for lightning bugs glittering the wide fields on either side.  For eyes closed in the wind and opened just in time to see fire blossom and spark on the opposite hill.  For a huge grin and a hard sprint.  And now, for deep sleep before early morning, all around the sound of distant pops and muffled booms.  Country folk pulling out all the stops to celebrate. 
Happy Independence Day!