Pop! Bang! Sizzle! I startle at the noise

That sounds like rice krispies - amped on steroids.

Did a car backfire? A gun fight break out?

What in the world could such noise be about?

Once at the window, my eyes search the night

Sizzle! Pop-Pop! I'm greeted by a sight:

A man-made evening art show in the sky

Red, white and blue for the fourth of July.

Pop! Bang! Bang! I watch colors as they burst.

Rainbows are destroyed - their remnants dispersed.

I mourn their dying ashes as they fall,

Camouflaged by the night, so dark and small.

Sizzle! Bang! Pop! Another rainbow - gone

The massacre will proceed until dawn.