At night

Carrying the cooler

Down to the breakwater,

Six of us hum

A song from third grade



That we used to know

And still remember

Somewhere

At the back of our lives.



It is only a block to the beach

And we walk it

Together

Like we used to walk together

To the playground.



The sand is dancing

With children waving

Lightsticks and waiting

For the Homecoming Day

Night fireworks

To begin.



We take our sneakers off,

Carry them

Between gritty fingers

Between families with

Children laughing and running

Reaching their hands

Out to touch

The luminescence of the waves

Breaking against the darkness.



We walk to the end

Of the stone breakwater, past other

Teenagers wearing

Windbreakers,

Sending cigarette butts off

Blazing through the dark

To be snuffed

Out by the moving sea.



Fireworks

Open above our heads and

Below our feet

In the ochre ocean.

We spread the old army blanket

On the last rock

And pass Pepsi from the cooler

Hand to lips to hand.



Looking back to the shore

We see families where we once sat

On the grass, hands clasped and clapping

For the absolute burst of color that

Thrusts through the black sky.

Children hold their collective

Gasp, waiting for the bang

That thunders across

The harbor

Striking them full force

In the chest.



We sit

Arms around each other's

Shoulders

Like we used to do

At our families' summer

Parties on the beach.

Then, we were like

Brothers and sisters.

And now ...

Now, we are here on the end

Of the breakwater.

A brilliant ellipse opens above

Our heads, and we look into the night

together.

Celebration of a Homecoming.