There are as many ways for a red fox 
to become ill as there are stars scattered 
across August skies. The usual parasites: 

mites and fleas digging, drawing 
claw and tooth to flesh and fur, fox jaw 
muscles working at the gnaw. Thirsting 

ticks nestle in, grow fat and shiny 
until they fall, or burst, and leave skin 
hidden by russet fur that much paler. 

Perhaps the blood loss is to a mosquito, 
slim pest proboscis bearing ill gifts 
from another fox or local mutt, passing on 

microfilariae that grow into heartworms, 
viscid invaders making ropy nests 
in the pulmonary arteries and the right 

side of the heart, as if it were the cozier 
side of the bed. It could be toxocariasis, 
roundworm passed from hound to fox 

and back until some small boy brings 
fist of grass to mouth and gives up 
the sight in those cornflower eyes. 

But at least there is a boy—the grinning 
fox could carry toxoplasmosis, not dying, 
just suffering a new odd attraction 

to feline odor, coming close, courting 
danger, passing to the brave cat that bites 
canine, sweet cat that curls around the feet 

of the lady of the house, carrier cat 
that passes the cursed gift to the brain, 
to the liver, to the child in the womb 

and scrambles the careful genetic blueprint. 
Let me put it this way: the fox is dying. 
Let me put it this way: I am the fox. 

*Definition of “nosophobia (noun)” from the Merriam-Webster.com Medical Dictionary; link retrieved on 10 September 2025:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/nosophobia

Colleen S. Harris

holds several advanced degrees, including an MFA in Writing and an MS in Library and Information Science, and works as a university library dean in Texas. Her most recent published books include two poetry collections, The Light Becomes Us (Main Street Rag, 2025) and These Terrible Sacraments (Doubleback Books, 2019; Bellowing Ark Press, 2010), and two chapbooks, Toothache in the Bone (boats against the current, 2025) and The Girl and the Gifts (Bottlecap Press, 2025).

Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in Anacapa Review, Berkeley Poetry Review, Cider Press Review, The Disappointed Housewife, The Louisville Review, The MacGuffin, ONE ART, Salvation South, Stone Poetry Quarterly, and others.

Follow her writing via Bluesky, Instagram, and Twitter [at]warmaiden and at her website: https://colleensharris.com

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Two Poems by Ms. Harris in Tuskegee Review (Issue 3, May 2025): “Memory Quilt” and “When the Scent on the Air Changes”

⚡ Book Excerpt: “Challenger” by Colleen S. Harris in Philly Poetry Chapbook Review (Issue 8, Spring 2025)

⚡ Tours of Grief in Third Wednesday Magazine (16 March 2025)