POSTED BY MARTIN KICH

Here is an inspiring rendition of a Langston Hughes poem produced by MoveOn.org:

 

And here is a more cautionary poem that is probably more at the level at which most of us celebrate the July 4th holiday:

Independence Day, 1971

 

He forced half a watermelon

like a tight helmet onto his head.

Two dozen bottle-rockets

had been stuck into the rind,

connected by a long fuse

 

which he lit with his cigar.

He ran across the broad lawn,

bellowing laughter,

showered in sparks as the rockets

fired in quick succession.

 

Their trails crossed in bright arcs,

and then their starbursts

flared across the country sky

from the creek bottom

to the stand of elm.

 

As he walked back to the house,

gobbling the pieces of melon

that clung to his face,

his wife said to their two little boys,

“Sometimes your dad’s a real danger.”