in the middle of this field you cannot dream
only sit and stare beyond the fence barely
a girl and barely from heaven
the sandpit swirls slow like
a mother’s arm checking the temperature
of a bath
but you were never a baby born
never waxed and threaded in the fit of a
women's clothes
the sun’s dry heat is a switch without leaves
(its flaying)
the only spoil you know
Ahja Fox can be found around Denver, Colorado reading at various events, cheering on her community, or co-hosting Art of Storytelling. She is an assistant poetry editor for Copper Nickel and Homology Lit and publishes in online and print journals like Five:2:One, LEVELER, Driftwood Press, Rigorous, Okay Donkey, The Perch (Yale), and more. She has also been included in the 2018 Punch Drunk Anthology, YANYR Anthology, and Reclaim:An Anthology of Women’s Poetry. Follow and contact Ahja on Instagram or Twitter at aefoxx.
by Lily Smith
poetry
... I undress now as your widow, / my thoughts sometimes lingering on all the times / I undressed as your wife ...
reviewed by Kathleen Nelo
nonfiction
... The soft yet punching vocabulary, the delicate balance of the sound of language and the sound of nothing in between, and the interwoven feeling of shaking to death in the cold ...