Holidays+As+We+Know+It


 * inverted syntax and figurative language

Holidays As We Know It by Evanna Wang and James Lin

It is that time again Where everyone gathers as one big family With all the bubbly and energetic aunts Everyone is excited to dance And enjoy the abundance of food It is the start of the holiday

It is time to start this holiday Everyone is around the dinner table again The table is full of steaming food And eager waits the family Everyone even stops to dance Everyone is ushered in by the aunts

Suddenly noises come from the mouths of the aunts Everyone has a hunch that maybe it is the end of the holiday no one dares to dance the fighting has begun again arguments erupt in the family and on the table is forgotten food

For what disturbed that precarious peace? is food for thought; what deeper flame animated aunts and uncles, sisters and sons – then choked a family? A needle threaded on a cold holiday A frayed conscience unravels again Outside the dead leaves whisper, the branches dance

Inside the sound waves echo, two gunshots dance From the eardrum to the conscience, through the food Through the wariness of a peace achieved again Of a peace that buckles the knees of aunts Under the weight of thanks and ease and holiday One distant extinguished fiber in a family

An affirmation of strength, so strong is the family Whose tendons, fingers, hearts in unison dance Snapped far away, a calm November holiday Cracked, a glass facade, and thickening food Broken in a bang, and tired grow the uncles, the aunts Shattered, a weak flame, a young life snubbed again

Amid the web, flickering filaments of a family and its food A dance now dying in the bones of aunts On a November holiday, the phone rings again.