families listened to the independence day concert,
while up on the hill a fiery cross was set ablaze.
it started burning about the time the band finished
the star-spangled banner.
only a lunatic
would ignore the dry conditions,
or the fact that a crackling fire
could spread so easily out of control.
or perhaps it was the work of children
stirred by griffith’s birth of a nation,
that racist rubbish,
which will not fade away.