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A Quiet Fourth
Fran and I much alone this bright mild day
With the boys scattered, friends too, mostly, so
It's Sousa and Ives out on the patio
(And how subtly the Ives lets the attention stray);
Then work on a fl y rod, later get away
For a run at Hendry's, when the tide is low.
My last run down there was six weeks ago --
Summer crowds, and a new fee I won't pay.
But on the Fourth you want a crowd, I learn,
So down I go: beach fl at, sea calm, clear, warm.
In and beside it, in every tint, size, form,
People, with frisbee, radio, sunburn.
-- Drive back, see centered formally on a top stair
A beer, beneath a fl ag limp in the cooling air.
July 4, 1978