All the excitement of a night of fireworks can be experienced in this poem, including a reference to the original infamous Guy Fawkes night. This is a great poem for choir work making use of onomatopaeia in particular.
FIREWORKS NIGHT
by Michele Lourie
Whoosh! Zing! Pop, pop, pop!
Explosion of colour on a sky canvas.
Faces of children, eyes shining, oohs, aahs!
Open-mouthed, turning from side to side,
Like clowns at a fair – there, there, over there!
Whine of rockets blasting, casting their payloads of brightness,
Sigh of spangled stars falling, falling like rain.
Firefly sparks between trees flitting, Catherine Wheel spitting,
Zipping in circular motion, quickly at first – then slowing, slowing.
Oops! Mum’s clothes – fetch the hose – still on the line.
Wow! Get there, just in time.
Tom Thumb crackers jumping like fleas
Thickening haze, invitation to sneeze. Atchoo!
“Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.”
Hoist the guy to the top of the pyre,
Higher, higher, ever higher.
Gold flames swallowed by the bruised black night.
What a sight!
Water hisses on the ashes
Like snakes flaring up to bite.
What a night!
Time for bed – to sleep to puffs of distant noise,
To dream – of incandescent light.