"Your Great Spectacle"
By s.p. burke
It is just one day to many
and always to a few.
It is life, after life
draped in red, white, and blue.
It’s portions of pride,
and it’s partially pain;
or babies with no parent,
bugle notes in the rain.
It’s also cookouts and beer,
and the roaring of engines.
It’s laughter, and family,
and the freedom you’ve given.
It’s sacred, it’s treasured
It’s got to be damn near
-and I bet you’d agree-
the best day of the year.
But perhaps that’s the fourth
or maybe Christmas morn’
or the birthdays of grandkids
that you’ll never see born.
I know I can safely assume
-at least this much is true-
I don’t take it for granted
this is all thanks to you.
s.p. burke is a retired intelligence analyst in the US Army. Follow him here. Listen to our Savage Wonder podcast episode with him here.
What’s happening at VetRep…
Listen to our latest episode with Lois Hicks-Wozniak on the Savage Wonder Podcast, where we interview incredibly talented musicians, artists, writers, and theater professionals, who also happen to be veterans.
Join us every Saturday through June for Gnit, by Will Eno, a cautionary tale about, among other things, how the opposite of love is laziness. Gnit is a faithful, unfaithful, and willfully American reading of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, a 19th century Norwegian play famous for all the wrong reasons. Settle in with a delicious mocktail and dessert, and be sure to get your tickets early or they might just sell out.