Count this as the fourth, in a line up, in a sporadic combination, but
the words are malleable ( able to be hammered or pressed out of shape
without breaking or cracking.) but I thank your smile for guiding me
through a night prior to the festivities. More than likely...... (from 2:30 the morning of.)
Pull up in the driveway and spread the blanket on top of the car. The high school, through the trees, topanga or calabasas or a mutt, putting on a wonderful fireworks display. The aesthetic appeal of colorful explosions in the sky but inside here, alone, family-less, friend-less, it sounds like civil warfare. Scare the dogs, they'll run away if you put them out. The cops are out to catch the drunks who use today as an excuse to fall off the wagon. Everyone will talk about liberty and set up tents in giant fields to protest the treatment of the homeless. There was a van with a guitar but now they are both gone. Some man had terrible luck but I couldn't add to it by deciding to be a thief. I am a coward it would appear. Although I talked to a supermodel fashion school girl. She said she wouldn't want to model and I said why the hell not? You could be a model. Then I continued sweeping.
I leaned against a light post, drawn to the colored lights in the night like the aurora borealis. One is gunpowder and a warped sense of patriotism, the other is the shifting magnetic poles of the earth. I imagine families gather here on the regular. Every year. Trying to force their way into the closest parking spot with no obstructions like trees or buildings in the way. The lights came from the direction of the road but off to the right a bit. I am filled with a melancholy, an infinite sadness because of the children present I keep calm. Here we are, all alone, together. Resenting my age and the rough-edged circumstance. No one is having a barbeque. No one is alive or waiting to turn back the clock. Blonde wisps of smoke disappearing in a summer morning haze. Low flying helicopter or on top of a high ridge would have been glorious. (Topanga lookout must have been packed with stoners and junkies, fixing u and trippin the night fantastic).
