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

Feb 11, 20241 min read

Nothing to Fear but Heartburn

Death invites us to dinner, and forgets to mention we are the main course. He leaves bite marks on the bend of our backs as we walk in...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

If Pain Was Black

I am a bird in the night. I am the night under a burnt-out street light. I am a burnt-out streetlight with midnight wings. I am a worm in...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

The Escape Window Blows Out

You pretend you’re safe. You live between the lines, certain of your destination. Earplugs dim the screams of life upside down. The bad...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

She Died Last Night

After vigils of worry and fatigue, she slipped out of our fingers, a hole, a whole vanished woman where once she laughed and breathed....

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

More or Less

My clothes are smaller by the day. I must have washed them hot. It couldn’t be the cheesecake or the cherry pie I eat each night. It...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

Her Bones

She stuffs neglect, not-good-enoughs, the jeers, the art of dodging within her spine, her ribcage that protects her shriveled heart. Her...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

Austin-Healey

You loved driving that Austin-Healey, top down, wind blowing your hair back. You grinned between puffs on your cigar. The canyon was...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

On a Road You Can’t Find

The ticket agent asks me where I want to go. Yesterday , I say. Not yesterday Thursday, but yesterday the year summer lasted forever. The...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

The Ghost in the Cellar

She roams the rooms, sometimes a shaft of sun, or shadow out of step with light or dark. Sometimes I see her, nod my head, think nothing...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

Searching for a Perfect Life

You want to live the perfect life, you don’t know what it is. Aunt Mae says life is gardening, you live it on your knees. Your...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

Tower

You are determined to reach God, and you don’t care how high you have to build or what you use. You start with the Legos your parents...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

Ordinary Hours

Firelight looks through the window, watching for me to come home to herbal tea and books and dogs. Yet here I am in freezing cold to slog...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

What I Lack

You say I’m always in my head, my feelings undeveloped. You say I don’t know passion as you pull me through the park. You throw me rough...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

Please Don’t Offer Me This Job

Thank you for contacting me about this tremendous opportunity. However, I am very happy with my current position as Head of Quality...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

I Had to Eat Vegetables After You Died

Vegetables. You always worried about me eating enough vegetables. I eat them now, I promise. I salt them with my tears. I eat all...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

Fishing for Kisses

You are river-bottom pebbles, patient, waiting to catch the light, current sway, fish kisses. Kisses are all you want to catch. Catch...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

Garage Sale

I lug all my yesterdays to the front lawn. All mistakes and failed choices. My husband says that most of this should go into the trash....

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

The Ache

I no longer find you in this dry riverbed. I only feel the loss of you faded into crusted mud, barren banks, receding undergrowth and...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

In Exile

I have no real home. I carry my life on my back and turtle-walk to the next morning. I am the sunrise and the sunset. I do not have...

Nolcha Fox

Feb 11, 20241 min read

Missed Flight

I stand behind you in line to drop off baggage. You disappear while I argue about size and contents, and if this is even my flight. Never...