Fireworks

Starbursts explode at midnight
And vanish like a year gone by.
Pinwheels whirl,
Seasons spin,
And sputter to an end.
In this fierce and fleeting world
We celebrate
Our birth and death,
New creation and the passing of the old.
For like a flare,
We live by burning,
And what is consumed is that which gives light.
So let us burn brightly,
And not begrudge what is spent,
But let the pyrotechnics engulf us,
Like roman candles blazing,
Or sparklers in the night.

—Gary A. Kowalski

From All the Gifts of Life: Collected Meditations, Volume Three, edited by Patricia Frevert.