TWO POEMS
Case of Apophenia
You sit in a tub of migraines
with the picture of a Mexican stripper
taped to the bathroom window,
thinking she pulled your mother’s pearls
from under.
You admire the way her tongue
sweeps glitter off another girl’s lashes,
how her name is mnemonic:
Died In Apartment, Naked, Alone.
She is legs and money tucked behind an ear,
unlit cigar, plenty of smoke to asphyxiate.
Nothing like your actual mother—
juliet roses strung up by the waist,
leaves gum-tacked to a hanger.
Together, they shrink, change color,
play their spines like xylophones.
What Holds You at Night Becomes the Snow
X those sheets could be bone floss
could be phantom
audition clothes gagging time until listen 'round to the deep dark sound
waterfalls spines uncombed of jade & feathers
ash rolls like hips on hips to hips merging with snake
black mapled you’re asphyxiating so i’m fixating on letter crows
their god sticky alkaline cutting
needled cartilage to curb ooo, honey you tongue-kiss that girl
w/ rosary beads as teeth
remember she said
blow cigarette & turn
between ribs is beesting & hunger some kind of song X
Ahja Fox can be found around Denver, Colorado reading at various events and open mics or co-hosting at Art of Storytelling. She publishes in online and print journals like Five:2:One, Driftwood Press, Rhythm & Bones Press, Rigorous, Moonchild Magazine, Anti-Heroine Chic, SWWIM , and more. She has also recently been included in the 2018 Punch Drunk Anthology and YANYR Anthology. A Best of the Net and Pushcart nominee, follow her on Instagram or Twitter at aefoxx.