Capture the Moment – Michelle Brooks

Small fires burn in the street

and the smell of gunpowder

permeates the night. Another

fourth of July and I feel the old

pull of sadness for summers gone

past, the wish that if I tried hard

enough, I could shed myself and join

the sparklers that erupt in the sky,

that beauty could erase my weariness

and grief, that somehow the fires

would burn forever instead of just

on Independence Day. And all

my life would be consumed

in smoke, blotting out the sun,

leaving only traces of glittery

explosions, of all the spectacular

before it evaporates before my eyes.

Michelle Brooks has published a collection of poetry, Make Yourself Small, (Backwaters Press), and a novella, Dead Girl, Live Boy, (Storylandia Press). Her poetry collection, Pretty in A Hard Way, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2019. Her collection, The Pretend Life, was published by Atmosphere Press in February 2020. A native Texan, she has spent much of her adult life in Detroit.