The Forest Fire, by Fiona Perry

The Forest Fire, by Piero di Cosimo (Italy) 1508

The Forest Fire
 
What are you? Rare breed calf-human boy hybrid, 
ornamental pot-bellied pig, saint’s face imposed 
on the head of a mature tapir? I get that a lot. 
One tends not to probe identity issues too deeply
when one’s forest is burning. The birds wheel aimlessly
here and are too heavy for the branches. One of them 
is wingless yet suspended mid-air. I blame disturbances 
in magnetic fields caused by the lack of distinct seasons. 
in the foreground it is winter but, in the background 
a luxurious amber summer is spreading out. The trees 
 
are as furry and soft as mink. See me walking around 
with my brother looking back upon the disintegration 
of the natural order- a grass eater growling at a mountain 
lion. Incongruence was like a powerful drug to our creator. 
See how despair fills the bodies of the bears/oversized 
Tasmanian devils/prehistoric sabercats, they can barely 
stand with the weight of it. Notice that deer are inherently
spiritual animals and frequently tilt their heads upwards- 
how vulnerable this makes them seem! If you stare at 
a gazelle’s leap for survival, it will make you joyous. If you 
stare at that running bull for long enough, the angle 
 
of its legs will confuse you. Even if we called to that man, 
“Save us!”, he would ignore us. Obsessed with mead 
and milk maids that never appear. No idea he is as much 
a prisoner here as we are.  He refuses to look at the fire directly.
I don’t know what started this blaze, or why the canopies 
of those trees are particularly flammable. A collection
of mysteries. Isn’t that what a forest is? But it’s too late. 
A touch paper has been lit in in my animal heart. My brother 
and I are running away to a new vista, just visible beneath 
the orderly stream of those non-specific flying things
in the distance. It is opening up as we run. The sea, the sea!  
Waves are rolling in, again and again, like beautiful new beginnings.

Fiona Perry

Fiona's poetry and short stories have been published in Lighthouse, The Blue Nib, Into the Void, Boyne Berries and Skylight 47, amongst many others. Her short fiction was nominated for the Australian Morrison Mentoring prize in 2014 and 2015, and her poetry was selected for the National Poetry Day Ireland 2019 ‘Labellit’ project. Her poem 'Moon' was nominated for The Best of the Net.