This website includes my (growing) collection of poems published on Medium, Substack, and elsewhere, starting from the day my mother died, November 1, 2023, to the present.

For a complete listing of links to my poems and other cool stuff:

https://nolchafox2.wixsite.com/blog

Nolcha Fox

Jun 21, 20241 min read

Off the Rails

The vagrant clouds hitch a ride on an empty train car, headed to Who Knows Where. All they have is water and backpacks containing...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 21, 20241 min read

Puppets

Puppets dangling in the air, waiting for the show to start. They can’t move as they would like. Something bigger guides their way. As I...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 20, 20241 min read

The Sidewalk

Tired feet drag to the beat of dreary weekday work days long. They pick up speed on Fridays, skipping hopscotch between chalk marks on...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 20, 20241 min read

Hidden Youth

I pull a dream out of a box of salvaged memories, forgotten by some previous owners in this attic, rotting, molding, dusty. I slide it...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 20, 20241 min read

Too Heavy

The hours shatter into minutes, minutes shards to crush my chest, teeth to tear my breath. Slices of seconds slit my lungs. Slices...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 18, 20241 min read

You Can Trust Me

I will dress you in your finest, put your make-up on just right. You can trust me. I will dye your hair and brush it. Every hair will be...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 18, 20241 min read

Borrowed

It’s said we live on borrowed time, in bodies lent, in rented rooms, sublet from shrouded landlord, who handed us keys and promises to...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 17, 20241 min read

Shaken

Our foundations crumble. The hours we arranged to live our lives crumble and bury the records of our dreams. We express our grief for...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 16, 20241 min read

Street Musician

His battered case is lined with grief. It's open at his feet. He plays his songs and sings along, his heart between his teeth. Passersby...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 16, 20241 min read

Pants

He lives life in grumpy pants, his pockets full of all his gripes and snarky snipes. He’s proud to ruin the happiness of everyone he...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 16, 20241 min read

We Don’t Know How

We don’t know how to say I’m sorry, I forgive you, it’s all past, I love you still. Instead, we talk of coverings for floors, of paint...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 15, 20241 min read

The Boat

The boat recalls its younger years when blue paint wasn’t faded. An oar still waits for willing hands to guide it down the river. It’s...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 14, 20241 min read

Gray Waiting

The wind is breathless, her face is red. The barometric pressure does a strip tease behind the curtains. The clouds are pregnant,...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 14, 20241 min read

On the Farm

I learned more from summers with my grandparents on the farm. Milking cows and pitching hay, collecting eggs, hanging sheets, and picking...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 14, 20241 min read

The Heart Is a Small Animal

It’s not a muscle pumping life, a keeper of lost loves. It’s furry brown, all wrapped around the fury of desire. Don’t think those little...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 13, 20241 min read

Nature’s Embrace

Nature embraces my face. Now I’m sniffling and sneezing and wheezing. It’s springtime. Or maybe it’s flu. published in Medusa's Kitchen

Nolcha Fox

Jun 13, 20241 min read

Seasons and Me

I was a child of the springtime once. Crayons in my chubby hands, I tried to color roses I saw dancing in the wind. I was a summer woman...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 13, 20241 min read

Midnight

whispers in my ears time to rise, to take off nightgown, feel the wet against bare skin, don’t worry, neighbors are asleep, they won’t...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 13, 20241 min read

Listen

Music is the swaying of the topmost branches of the aspen as the budding leaves learn how to glisten, quake, and shimmer in another...

Nolcha Fox

Jun 13, 20241 min read

My dog

is a deaf bag of brittle loose bones. She collapses when the wind blows. Her bark shakes the ceiling, scolding me because I am not in bed...