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divorce
Divorce from “My Childhood Elegies”
When Mom and Dad were still trying to keep the magic alive for Christmas, I was choosing where to wake up that morning.
Mom would wrap garland down the stairs and Dad would bake cookies. Neither would let me help.
I was caught in a moment of time where nothing made sense. I would stare at either fire and feel the heat bend around me.
I wanted to reach out and touch it, wrap it around me, let the fire blister me, let it raise my skin better than my parents raised me, better than I raised myself.
The smell of burnt around me. The jingle of the bells on the garland as it smacks the ground. An ember flies out and hit my leg, and just for a second, I thought I had gotten unstuck.
Arden Alexander Miller
