The Sad Firecracker

The firecracker one day realized in an epiphany,

“I am a firecracker with my fuse lit!

But I am just a firecracker…

Not even a large firecracker.

It’s not like I’m a stick of dynamite…

I can’t even destroy anything like a hand.

Oh, you cruel, cruel God! You cruel prankster!

In a few moments I will explode in a passing puff of smoke!

I will be forgotten in an instant! I was made to explode in a forgettable fashion!

Why, I ask you all, why? My life is a cruel, depressing joke!”

And the fuse ran all the way down into the firecracker, but with a sputter…

He did not detonate. The firecracker was defective.

The child playing with the firecracker went to pick it up. What a worthless firecracker, he thought.

And as he picked it up between two fingers, the firecracker exploded, burning the child’s fingers badly and making him run home crying.

It seems for all his misery and gloom, for his one cheap purpose, he got the final laugh.