Independence Day

The pinnacle of summer.
A civil war of hot gold and cool shade.
The Fourth of July.
My country’s declaration of its life,
its right to live and breathe
the air of its democracy,
from one free ocean to another.
I declare
my right to love the dark shade
of a tree’s coolness.
To be still,
and remember with the earth
my right to be.
We are free.
We must keep
the vast distances inside us,
and remember in our hearts,
the future is ours.