Brian Eckert

Right before the 4^th of July, the boy entered the Army.

He hugged the dogs goodbye and told the old one, “don’t you die on me while I’m gone, girl.”

Come the 4^th of July next year, the old dog was still alive,

but the boy was dead, killed in Afghanistan,

a place he did not belong.

His mother carried a flag in his honor at the town’s 4^th of July parade.

They spoke her son’s name. The crowd cheered.

That night, the woman wept while the old dog barked at the fireworks.