Tresha Faye Haefner
In the Beginning There was the Internet
And the Face of the light moved over the monitor. And the God of ones and zeros was monitoring all of us. And the government was listening. And we came, we that were not of the internet, but sent to use the internet. And the web browsers locked us out. And the encrypted messages remained encrypted. And we were sent emails to unlock our messages. And we were sent secret codes to unlock our accounts. And yay, we wept at the sight of the monitor grown dead as the eye of a behemoth slain at the bottom of the sea. And we did struggle. We did wander. We did disembark the arc of our airplane and wander through the airport and there was light and shadow, and macchiatos and foam neck pillows. And there were people from everywhere crossing in front of us, carrying suitcases full of chargers and gee-gaws and they were leaving baggage claim to take ride shares to hotel rooms, far from the crowds, far from cars, far from their homelands, listening to strangers on television. And they were turning to one another saying “verily, verily” we have arrived as they searched for an outlet, and plugged in an electric toothbrush, and put on their night ointments and fell asleep under paintings of ships setting sail on the ocean, luminous and nailed against the wall.
~
My Sister Gave Birth to a Fox
They think it’s some kind of miracle,
like women haven’t been giving birth
To foxes for centuries now.
It’s orange tail. Its bright, unexpected ears.
She spends all her time with him now,
Bathing him, quilting him into the landscape.
When I get a chance to steal him,
I take him to the place
Where the lawn meets the forest.
I tell the fox I too was an animal once.
I might want to be an animal again.
The fox touches my mouth with his fingers.
He’s searching for my fangs, my incisors.
When he pulls his hands away
They are pink with the smell of civilization.
We spend the rest of the day picking flowers,
Pawing the dirt. Biting each other’s haunches
To tear away the fleas.
Tresha Faye Haefner’s poetry appears, or is forthcoming in several journals and magazines, most notably Blood Lotus, Blue Mesa Review, The Cincinnati Review, Five South, Hunger Mountain, Mid-America Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, Radar, Rattle, TinderBox, and Up the Staircase Quarterly. Her work has garnered several accolades, including the 2011 Robert and Adele Schiff Poetry Prize, and a 2012, 2020, and 2021 nomination for a Pushcart. Her first manuscript, Pleasures of the Bear was a finalist for prizes from both Moon City Press and Glass Lyre Press. It was published by Pine Row Press under the title When the Moon Had Antlers in 2023. Find her at www.thepoetrysalonstack.substack.com.
