Cecily Parks
Aubade With Foxes
All night foxes ranged over the snow crust
barking raggedly. This morning
a warm rain softens the snow and dumbly
I watch my love sweep it off the windshield
and drive away. I'm in the road in little more
than underwear, suspended in the edgy bliss
of exhaust with two flights of stairs to climb.
In dens nearby the coiled foxes lick
their teeth in sleep and cover their eyes
with bushy white-tipped tails. When I
go inside, my bare feet leave curved wet marks
on the stairway's metal treads. A fox
will arc along a wall knowing the stone
won't hold her scent. When a fox runs in leaves
her sound is a rustle of leaves. No one is looking
or listening for me. Nearby a bell hits its notes.
Which version of heaven will feed me
until my love comes home? In one, I understand
what the foxes say. In the other, the foxes
find what they want and are quiet with it.
Cecily Parks
Cold Work
selected by Li-Young Lee
for the 2005 Chapbook Fellowship.
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