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Fire as Change

Fire as Change

The Violence Before the Blooming

Keana Aguila Labra's avatar
Keana Aguila Labra
May 20, 2024
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Pamalandungon
Fire as Change
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Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers by Jake Skeets is a careful extraction of beauty. Skeets uses intimate details to create the narrative behind his exploration of self, sexuality, and family. Particular descriptors hint at the stage of the journey with words like black, fire, and ash signaling but also fertile ground for a new beginning. Flowers, on the other hand, sing of settled joy. These descriptions reflect the journey of the speaker’s masculinity, beginning as harmful, either to the speaker himself or to others, and unbearable and ending something life-giving and warm. 

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