The Fire This Time
The Fire This Time
Jesmyn Ward
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The Fire This Time “Homegoing, AD” by Kima Jones Summary & Analysis
Part 1: “Legacy”
Poem Summary: “Homegoing, AD”
Jones’s hybrid poem, which begins as prose, describes a family funeral. The speaker, an unnamed figure who uses the third-person plural, sits in a car while Jack drives quickly toward the funeral, sixteen hours through North Carolina. The speaker witnesses Grandaddy’s body and her mourning Grandmama in a home full of people and food.
The speaker, with her cousin and a girl named Toya, goes to the woods to drink and smoke. In the hot night, they discuss Grandaddy’s death in his bed, and the speaker keeps accepting drinks from her cousin. Her cousin leans toward her, and they embrace. Toya warns them of copperheads. Wary of alligators, they see one and run “cuz gator made for water / but children born for land” (17).
Poem Analysis
Jones’s poem bridges poetry and prose. Rich in setting and rhythmic language, the text largely resembles a short story until the final moments, when Jones places abundant white space between her words. This effect slows down the reader and mimics the tension the characters feel as the alligator approaches. This alligator functions as a symbol of danger. Throughout the anthology, writers describe the constant fear of peril for African Americans, particularly in the wake of racially motivated shootings.
