i am at that quiet portion of the evening where all the fireworks have stopped--though one goes pop just to prove me wrong, just to show there is still someone awake--and i am sitting on the back porch, the one that tilts as though it were built on a preexisting roof, as though i am concerned we might all come sliding off--i am sitting on this back porch because there is someone sleeping on the couch as he is newly returned from egypt and not yet found a comfortable place to land

today i read the awakening and thought maybe i should get around to reading hell's angels again, but instead, later in the evening, we watched most of fear and loathing in las vegas and i love to be reminded that i only see johnny depp a few rare times in that movie, otherwise it is all transformation

i have reached that quiet portion of the evening except for the clacking of my fingernails on these keys and the chirping of the upstairs fire alarm whose battery has needed replacing for well on a week now

and it was a fine fourth of july and i, as a child, am always equally terrified and delighted by fireworks since, yes, as i said, i am a child

however, i could've done without being pulled over, those flashing red and blue lights not what i was looking for to end my evening of flashing lights; especially since i got pulled over for my goddamn window tint; i wasn't drunk, i wasn't speeding, i wasn't anything i should be pulled over for on fourth of july or anything that has ever been mentioned to me EVER in any of my various run-ins with the po-lice, son of a bitch

and then, as the popping of fireworks when i said there were none, various sirens start up all over this part of the city, racing in different directions to meet each other in the middle