IX: the hermit.
Elisheva Fox
Image by Ryan Hutton
my son holds up his
fist, fingers curled like swans’ necks.
“did you know a neutron star is
maybe this small?”
his eyes, excited and luminous,
open moon wide.
“but did you also know it is the densest
thing in the universe?”
i did know, yes.
sweet boy, i know –
because except for you and your brother,
except for your supernova
of questions
of hands
of hugs –
i am
a kernel inside of my body,
tiny and impossibly heavy.
Elisheva Fox
Elisheva Fox is a mother, lawyer, and writer. She braids her late-blooming queerness, Texan sensibilities, motherhood, and faith into poetry. Some of her other pieces can be found in Touchstone Literary Magazine.