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Unread 04-13-2024, 07:28 PM
John Riley John Riley is offline
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Matt, I've used the fox, and wildcats, in my poems, maybe too much. What I like about a fox is how it brings mysteriousness, coyness, and night. You've used those traits so well here. Moving on, when the reader realizes it's a fantasy built by a guy who spends too much time online, or is he playing a game,? the fox becomes more sly. Who doesn't love a sly fox?

At the end, when the mountains become the backs of towering houses and the foxes are sunning themselves on the top of "the peeling roofs of the garages" the poem is both funny and sad. I like the humor but am sad for the narrator who has the humor. To over-extend my metaphor, you have slyly slipped in a moving poem about loneliness.

I know my reading may not be what you intended but it doesn't matter. If it can create more readings that means it's even better.

One tiny quiver--at the beginning of S2 why not

"by this time I had already taken on" instead of "at this time?" "By this time" indicates continuity, an ongoing process.

Great one, Matt. Congrats.
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