Hood Smoke

I have been a DC resident for five years now, and today was the first time I ventured into the four hundred thousand plus crush to celebrate the fourth on the steps of the Capitol. My mother insisted that we take our visiting relatives to see the show. I was not excited about it, to tell the truth. It was brutally hot and humid and just so "touristy" for a girl who lived five minutes away from the Mall for years before moving to South East DC.

The show itself was your standard TV cheese, hosted by Jason "SERENITY NOW!" Alexander - who's version of Freedom Now started off like Kung Fu Fighting. Vanessa Williams started the show off with a lame Disney song and the drek continued into a completely vomitrocious version of some Sinatra standard performed by Michael Bolton. Ole Blue Eyes should haunt the guy for ejaculating all over his repetoire with his complete disregard for phrasing and nuance.

Elmo was cute and tried to cop free kisses from Vanessa which was very har-dee-har. Unfortunately he didn't suggest she return to modeling. Joe Dee Messina sang an ass kicking version of God Bless America which had my inner Simon Cowell's eyebrows raised in admiration. And then --- YAY! --- Stevie Wonder performed a quick medley of hits that had us all jamming until the break of fireworks over the Washington Monument. To finally see Mr. Wonder -- an American Treasure -- perform live, as we boogied on the steps of the Capitol, will now go down as one of the moments I felt most proud to be a citizen of this nation.

I came home on a, thankfully, tourist free green line, direction Branch Avenue. Thought I'd catch my usual bus home, but when I exited Anacostia station there were no buses. Cars clogged MLK Ave on both sides, which made it feel safe at the late hour, so I walked the fifteen minutes to my house.

Never in my life have I seen so many fireworks. Everywhere I looked there were explosions. Above my head red, gold, silver, white and blue bombs bursting in the blunt scented air. On the sidewalks children were playing with sparklers and lighting cans that would zzzzzzeeeeeeeeeoooop unexpectedly. The sirens of fire trucks, ambulances and police cruisers provided a cacophonous counterpoint to the boom boom boom.

At the corner of 13th and Good Hope, waiting for a green light to cross over to purchase smokes at the 24 hour night shop, a group of teenagers stood. One threw a sizzling stick onto the ground next to my feet and they all laughed to see me jump a good three feet back as it discharged, rolling into the gutter below. I turned with a Hey, Ya'll need to watch it with those firecrackers! only to look into the faces of about eight angry youths. And then the firefight broke out.

They started hurling firecracker missiles across Good Hope road, taunting and laughing at a group of youths who were hurling missiles back from the other side. These were low flying shhhhhhhhheeeeeuuuuu sounding, white hot flaming spears. And where was the Abundant One? Caught in the crossfire.

You can ask my beloved BVT who was on the phone with me through it all. For about two minutes I was hopping around, trying to get out of the way, facing the hyped crowd of teenage firecracker fighters who didn't even notice how terrified I was. All I could do was a slo-mo-skip- step-jump-back-duck-hop-cringe. And while this weird tableux was playing out I kept my new cell phone firmly planted on left ear and screeched babble.

Po-Po* came 'round the corner with full authority. The boys ran off into the alley behind the supermarket, so I crossed Good Hope road,ended my conversation and ran into the store to get a much needed cigarette.

Finishing my walk home I felt so ALIVE. The rockets glared, the bombs burst and the air of the 'hood hung heavy with curtains of dust and ash.

*police