After Sufjan Stevens’ “Fourth of July - Version 4”
Poem
Performed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on July 5th, 2025
a sky creased
with the veins of a dying universe
a closed, sputtering movement
/the evil, it spread/
against a chorus of sirens and
tortured dogs
/could I be the sky?/
head bruising against the hard grass
of our new apocalypse
I am myself at eight years old
mouth stained with sugary red dye
mouth too full to speak and
there was no need
then
/now, where am I?/
eating charred meat
drinking in our checker-patterned
love
and all I can think is
/tell me what did you learn
from the Tillamook burn?/
and that sound
which cracks open our
stars
a sound like a dove’s bones
breaking
/did you get enough love?/
how far does sound travel before
it loses all meaning?
before our sunscreen slathered bodies
become memories, wishes made
by those with faces stained
with that red dye
/we’re all gonna die/
on shooting stars
when is the tree falling swallowed
by a headline
/before I say goodbye/
something in the chlorine
smells different now
it weighs on
this place
across the sky
where those sparks die out
/my fading supply/
a home
/my star in the sky/
I hardly recognize
anymore