Jessica Brophy

Firemark Jessica Brophy

Firemark is the sequel to Jessica M. Brophy's poetry debut, The Paper Girl (Finishing Line Press, 2016). What happens to this girl with a paper route who grew up in a Christian fundamentalist home? Does she find a language to narrate her own life? A memoir formed by poems, Firemark captures the internal pain of hiding the birthmark on her face. It describes how Brophy internalized ugliness and low self-esteem because she thought having a birthmark was a curse. Eventually, by playing with different naming techniques, she finds a language to describe how beautiful the birthmark is. The reader sees this naming process: Is it a "tomato slat"? Is it a "Crimson Hand"? What does it mean for doctors to say your child wears a "stain"? In the end, Brophy realizes the birthmark she has covered for over thirty years with makeup has to be shown to others if she is going to save her own life and move out of girlhood into a wild womanhood. Firemark is the story of how Brophy learns to love the burst of purple and red on her face, finally feeling comfortable in her own skin.