Valerie Fox: NOVEMBER NIGHTMARE • Cleaver Magazine

Valerie Fox
NOVEMBER NIGHTMARE

My bag disappeared
with my passport, my keys
a little vial containing
a sliver of bone.

I was stalked by an ordinary man.

My bag reappeared on a table
like at an airport.
Stained. Light as air.
All that remained was a plastic comb
and some pennies.

I got separated from my daughter.
I had to sit across from a man
making super-small talk,
trying to keep me there
as long as possible.

It wasn’t my trauma it was somebody else’s.

I couldn’t have my bag back
even though it was only a limp husk.
An official person went upstairs
and threw it overboard.

This happened. There was a splash.

Valerie Fox is the author of several books, including The Rorschach Factory (Straw Gate Books), The Glass Book (Texture Press), and Poems for the Writing: Prompts for Poets, co-written with Lynn Levin (Texture Press). Insomniatic, a chapbook, is forthcoming from PS Books. Fox has published many poems and stories co-written with Arlene Ang, and has also published Bundles of Letters Including A, V and Epsilon, which is a compilation with Ang. Fox has published work in Painted Bride Quarterly, Philadelphia Stories, Ping Pong, Hanging Loose, Apiary, Juked, Cordite Poetry Review, qarrtsiluni, Mockingheart Review, Sentence, and other journals.