Valerie Fox ---- three poems

A new character enters a recurring dream

Meredith, from work.
Damn, so the whole episode
starts in the department conference room.
My shirt is gone, the pink one.
Meredith's leading me
the opposite
direction of where
I should go. She acts
like I should appreciate
her because
she is so willing to travel
with me to this painful, present place.

Late Friend

Phone message:
Hi, it's Jeff. I'm at the airport,
Gate 63, Delta. Can you come out here?

I have three hours.
I'll buy you one of those chocolatinis.
You can tell me all about England.

Phone message:
It's Jeff. My plane is about to take off.
I wrote you a letter and taped it
under the corner (left side) orange seat
across from service desk,
Delta, Gate 63.

*

Yes, I did take the train out there. Couldn't find the letter.
Must've looked strange. I have a few letters, though, from Jeff.
He tells me that he and his girlfriend got themselves
an imaginary dog. He takes up quite a bit of their time.

Places, mainly

There were too many mirrors in the house I grew up in. At least I got used to how I look. But a subsequent place where I lived had hardly any mirrors. My reflection could have left town and I wouldn't have noticed.

This one town I lived in banned train whistles after midnight. Everyone there was required to have their own porch swings, lawn ornaments, and watering holes.

Another town I lived in had a sister city in Iceland.

Generally, when the whole town couldn't sleep, the population would rise up out of their beds and restore Victorian dollhouses and other collectibles.

My final town, the one I'm in now, gives off a movie remake aura of having lost any real sense of place. Don't get me wrong. This town is big on culture and convenience. Even so, I now regret that I never made time to introduce myself, personally, to Darla and her quartet.