Did Somebody Order Fireworks?

A homeless guy on
the train
called me classy
last night
the landlord raised
my rent 8%
he must think I’m classy, too.
my insurance company calls me
a “long distance driver”
though I drive
less than 5,000 miles a year and
the ATM says “no funds are
available at this time.”
whose idea of Independence
Day is this anyway?
even the birds are chirping on
credit
a vendor in front of
Bank of America swears
he’s smoking J. Edgar Hoover’s
ashes, but where are the fireworks?
no fireworks either when
billions disappear from state
coffers in Iraq and
trillions from the Federal Reserve
where are the fireworks
when one in five children
goes to bed hungry?
the Domino’s pizza guy
says they’re out of
deep dish
by the time he shows up
I have no appetite.
heat rises under my feet like
the universe is having hot flashes.
A mechanic vows to find me
new shocks, ones that
can hold up to all these potholes.
I want to believe him.


(c) Jayne Lyn Stahl

July 4, 2011
(all rights reserved)

To be published in the upcoming online PEN Oakland anthology, "Fightin' Words."