The Shooter Speaks of Pyrotechnics

by Todd Mercer

The daily debate on the Neighborhood page — “Gunshot or fireworks?” — is one more unsolvable issue I lack the patience to tolerate lately. Better to rise above repetition, and best to do it in the company of civilized fellow travelers, rather than retreating to a modern iteration of Walden Pond. It’s a gunshot; there, no argument necessary. This is a time to be proactive, to design your own life and independently remove obstacles to success. That noise at 1 a.m. was me solving a thorny problem. Similarly, also my noise Saturday around 9 at night, not a firework some hedonist launched.

6S

Todd Mercer's collection Ingenue was published in 2020 by Celery City Press. Recent work appears in Blink Ink, Down in the Dirt and Fictive Dream.