July Fourth By The Ocean

The continent's a tamed ox, with all its mountains,

Powerful and servile; here is for plowland, here is

    for park and playground, this helpless

Cataract for power; it lies behind us at heel

All docile between this ocean and the other. If

    flood troubles the lowlands, or earthquake

Cracks walls, it is only a slave's blunder or the

    natural

Shudder of a new made slave. Therefore we happy

    masters about the solstice

Light bonfires on the shore and celebrate our power.

The bay's necklaced with fire, the bombs make crystal

    fountains in the air, the rockets

Shower swan's-neck over the night water…. I

    imagined

The stars drew apart a little as if from troublesome

    children, coldly compassionate;

But the ocean neither seemed astonished nor in awe:

If this had been the little sea that Xerxes whipped,

    how it would have feared us.