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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.
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For a complete listing of links to my poems and other cool stuff:
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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...
Nolcha Fox
Feb 11, 20241 min read
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