Fireworks rupture the smoke gold stars like sky-sealed approval burst trickle down green triangles flare then vanish the city gathers along the shore in mosquito-dotted night the buzz orchestral, indifferent purr of the ocean, surprised gasps of children, their popsicle-sticky faces made long with dropped jaws they whoop and whimper in stark contrast with the college students: young, cool, well-versed in critical theory; they trade paraphrased Foucault and cigarettes, remark on their elegant boredom but they don't leave grudging wonder wedged behind their collarbones and halfway up a construct