The Burst of Red Rockets

Betsy Joseph

July 23, 2023

Sons now grown, living on their own, 

and the heat index rising steadily outside,

we find we have little interest in seeking 

crowded fireworks displays on this Fourth of July.

We listen instead to a raucous chorus—

these cicadas that drown out our voices

with their incessant drone—

and in place of bottle rockets whooshing 

high into the twilight sky,

our eyes are drawn to the grand sentry along our curb:

the tall crepe myrtle now shooting rockets

of scarlet red blossoms,

a patriotic contribution to this holiday

that crackles with summer heat.

Betsy Joseph lives in Dallas and has poems which have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. She is the author of two poetry books published by Lamar University Literary Press: Only So Many Autumns (2019) and most recently, Relatively Speaking (2022), a collaborative collection with her brother, poet Chip Dameron.