Long ago & yesterday an orphaned fox
Entered a lonely hunter’s neighborhood
Removed her skin & became woman-wife
Cooked meals, cleaned house, mothered children
Arranged flowers for the table, made money
In advertising on 7th Ave.—like you wouldn’t believe
The hunter thought his wife beautiful & so crafty
He’d placed his happiness in her hands
Looked at her naked body like a body of water
For twenty years the pair merged as wave and sand
But outside of bed he complained about her smell
Could she peel off that underlying wild musk?
Tattoo his name & rank on each of her breasts
Where’s my this & my that, the food’s too peppered
Got so bad, his wife schemed the perfect crime
Her mid-life brain caught feral fire
She remembered foxes smell like violets
& she turned & turned depleted in her bed
Until knowing was ripe—a dream—a tree
Heavy with apples: Eat, creature of appetite
Her soul beneath the sheets leaped out like a bean
Jumping & howling Fox Fox Fox
A hailstorm marked the road for her to follow
Deep into the forest—juggling apples on her nose
In the forest there is no deodorant. Foxes are foxes
Grace you with their presence
Marisa Frasca is the author of Via Incanto: Poems from the Darkroom (2014—finalist for the Bordighera National Poetry Prize) and Wild Fennel: Poems and other Stories (2019, Bordighera Press). Her poems and translations have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, among them: The Stillwater Review, Italian Americana, TheRed Wheelbarrow, Journal of Italian Translation, The Yale Poetry Series Anthology, Making Mirrors: Writing /Righting for and by Refugees Anthology. Frasca is the recipient of the Outstanding Riggio Scholar Award, 2010, from The New School where she received a BA, and she holds an MFA in poetry from Drew University. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of Arba Sicula, a non-profit organization that preserves and disseminates the Sicilian language, literature and folklore. Born in Vittoria, Italy, Frasca lives with her husband, Peter, in Manhasset, New York.
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