Christmas Tree Lights by Cameron Morse

I turn on the Christmas  

tree. Read my hand  

by the red electric light  

of the tree. My friend  

sees only by the tree that  

spread the fire, the candle  

that cradled her own  

brother in flames.  

My friend relives Christmas.  

I revive the living room  

with the click  

of my tongue, the snap 

of a button. Wrapped,  

or rapt, in the wire 

barbs of light, I start 

where my friend left off 

in the field of lost brothers.  

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Cameron Morse is Senior Reviews editor at Harbor Review and the author of eight collections of poetry. His first collection, Fall Risk, won Glass Lyre Press’s 2018 Best Book Award. His latest is The Thing Is (Briar Creek Press, 2021). He holds an MFA from the University of Kansas City—Missouri and lives in Independence, Missouri, with his wife Lili and (soon, three) children. For more information, check out his Facebook page or website.