{"id":92942,"date":"2015-12-15T18:31:42","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T23:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=92942"},"modified":"2015-12-15T18:38:44","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T23:38:44","slug":"brushfire-at-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/15\/brushfire-at-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Brushfire at Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

This holiday season, remember the critical importance of fire safety.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cBrushfire at Christmas,\u201d a poem by Judy Longley, appeared in\u00a0our Spring 1996<\/a> issue.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Arkansas, 1993
\u2014for Lawrence, my brother<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ve followed the crumbs to your feast,
share the table with Father again,<\/p>\n

his anger smoldering belly-deep
while Mother smiles, eyes darting,<\/p>\n

ready to peck with her sharp words.
In this version of our lives<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Sis and you\u2019re Sonny, once children
of a powerful king. You serve platters<\/p>\n

of spiral-sliced ham while I butter
my tongue, trapped in my wish<\/p>\n

to become an angel of peace, to swallow
lies past the lump in my throat.<\/p>\n

Hands schooled to the courteous
passing of bowls, I\u2019m the daughter<\/p>\n

Mother intended, silent when her sugarplum
version of the past clashes<\/p>\n

with my memory of dishes flying: Mother
hurling china into the dark that cowers<\/p>\n

outside our kitchen steps, a crash
and a curse for each year since my birth<\/p>\n

until strawberries clotted on our last
unshattered plate. Now we\u2019re polite,<\/p>\n

mouth good-byes into the stiff wind
worrying a Christmas angel on your door,<\/p>\n

hot-pink gown blazing against a pine
swag, horn mute at her lips.<\/p>\n

Then a neighbor shouts, smoke writhes
from the broom he beats at crumpled<\/p>\n

Christmas wrapping ribboned in flame,
the field between us unraveling with fire.<\/p>\n

You mount your tractor, plow a firebreak
around your house, the despondency<\/p>\n

where our parents tremble, caught
in the witch\u2019s spell of illness, old age.<\/p>\n

Overdressed for a fire in my purple silk,
The mauve felt shoes that won\u2019t return me<\/p>\n

to Kansas or even my youth, I\u2019m released
into a more exuberant self, brandish<\/p>\n

the hose, spray water into a dragon\u2019s mouth
hissing back. My pulse a castanet<\/p>\n

I stamp errant sparks until firemen arrive,
save the forest of tall pine where creatures hide,<\/p>\n

no river to halt the angelic choir of flame,
should it rise, sentient, over everything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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