The Late Launchers

After New Year’s Eve there’s always some lone wolf shooting off the last of their fireworks. Four days later you’re walking down the street and suddenly there’s a BAM! or that long whistle of a rocket going off. I always feel vaguely sorry for these late launchers. I picture a man, a young man (never a woman — that’s a compliment, ladies) with nothing to do and a few firecrackers, stragglers, left over from the festivities. He’s bored and those red devils on his dresser are just going to waste, so what the hell — I’m going to go out and make some NOISE… But shooting them off days after 12/31 is never the same as exploding in a new year. Those single bangs and booms sound lonesome, even pathetic when they go off all alone, 100 hours into a new year. Sort of like the kid who wants attention but the only way he can get it is to scream. People do turn and look at him quizzically for a few seconds, then shrug and go back to whatever it was they were doing.

first posted at: www.jonathancarroll.com