Gong Li Plays the Nine Tail Vixen
You know her: that girl in the short skirt
with a sash hanging just a little too long
around her waist, walking with her feet
just a little off the sidewalk, pretty little hands
pawing the air. Oh, you can sniff her finger
nail polish as she brushes past, it tastes of
oranges and glows in neon with a little hint
of electric buzzing light. Imagine that sound
in your hair. Imagine Ben Franklin’s kite
soaring above Fujiyama in full eruption, imagine
she’s your brother’s sister. Your other brother
Lee. Kitsune, huli jing, dear Foxy Loxy,
you’ve driven me right back into my den
of generous thieves. My little police garage
of injustice. Dear vegetarian predator canid
with your little fangs just a glint behind pink
lips. Oh, she is soaring with crossed swords!
I’d like to do that now I’ve reached a certain
age. Ah, I’m there now, Nana Fox, my little
white gloves, my little white socks will patter
the air. You’ll see me fly yet, me, little shape-
shifting trickster. Your familiar spirit. My
tenth tail’s arriving. It’ll flatten mountains
and raise tsunamis. No collars on me—the brass
rings’d burn your fingers. Mine snap fire
when I click my nails under your chin.
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Pediatrician Kelley White has worked in Philadelphia and New Hampshire. Poems have appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Rattle, and JAMA. Her most recent chapbook is A Field Guide to Northern Tattoos (Main Street Rag Press). Recipient of 2008 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant she is Poet in Residence at Drexel’s Medical School. Her newest collection, NO. HOPE STREET, was recently published by Kelsay Books.
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Stone Poetry Quarterly 