Independence Day

does anyone remember

why we're celebrating

under the smoking umbrellas

of cacophonous pyrotechnics

if the wizard of osmosis

is yet busy pumping

his ooze through the plumbing

of the white house

he's soiled

fouling

our declaration

                  *

did you hear

the one about

the priest and the

rabbi and the minister

who stepped

into the bar

where i often drink

with their books

and their garb

and religious

paraphernalia and their

disingenuous pontifications

in a vainglorious

attempt to tell me

what to think

instead of enjoying

together a pale IPA

or a brown pint

of guinness

well so much

for listening

and laughing

                  *

when i was a child

i used the words

of a child

i said bunny

at easter

when i watched

the race i assumed

victory lay in the great pace

and directionless

dash of the hare

when i calmed

into the odd habit

of cultivating root vegetables

and flowers i fought

with what i believed

was an invasion

of fast breeding

rabbits

                  *

i have no use anymore

for the gibberish of labels

holy words cut and pasted

the morals of fables

misinterpreted by fanatics

i would prefer to sort it

out together with

a few disagreeable minds

who can still reason

and remember

                  *

yesterday a creature

with curious eyes

and a twitching

sniffing nose

full of speculation

and flopping

listening ears

and fabulous fur

mottled with tufts

of white feathers

and a narrow

wisp of a tail

always pointing

to the distance

from where it just came

jumped onto

the path

through the meadow

i was traversing

i did not

know what it was

had never seen it

before did not care

what it happened

to be labeled in some

treatise on species

as it disappeared

under the thistles

and then

a moment later

reemerged as

something

entirely

different