Last night
I heard the fog
pussy-footing around the alley
and then felt it
smearing its catty nose
against my sleeve
smelled its
fishy breath–
that odor
from days and days
on speed.
It was dark
so I do not understand
how something
so soft could claw my finger,
a jagged tin.
Maybe it was you
again
with your old arguments
about being
and nothingness,
that bed I refused you
to lay me
in.

Lois Marie Harrod’s Fragments from the Biography of Nemesis (Cherry Grove Press) and the chapbook How Marlene Mae Longs for Truth (Dancing Girl Press) appeared in 2013. Nightmares of the Minor Poet forthcoming May 2016. She teaches Creative Writing at The College of New Jersey.