Our independence day.

• Author: Weigl, Bruce
• Position: Poem

I didn't know our night

trees could feel this safe,

three a.m., an early dove

coos for someone;

stars and more stars.

I didn't know

what I didn't know.

I didn't want

a life of anything then, only

a life.

Someone told me

Let it go boy,

let the green

untangle from your body.

We used to say

It don't mean nothing

over bodies we found in muddy battle.

We used to say

God and Mummy in our half sleep

between red glare

rockets roaring in. Here,

the night trees feel safe;

no luminous human beings

in the sultry garden at least.

(for Charles Simic)