Bright, bombastic, brilliant. Red like pin-up lipstick. Careening through the sky like a lobbed missile. They sounded like gun shots, but the discomfort on the ear was swiftly mitigated by the feast on the eyes as they erupted into the air.
Colors splashed across the sky, a smattering of everything, a fistful of candy bursting out like confetti - cherry red skittle, jolly rancher purple, mystery flavor white, lemonade pink starburst.
The air smelled of lighter fluid, of grilled meats, of pickled relish and ketchup. Laughter echoed all around me, bouncing from corner to corner - families young and old who came together on the green lawn to watch the spectacle of sound and color, to celebrate the day we gained our independence - red, white and blue. The colors always went well together, like how could they have ever not been colors to put together?