Foxgirl Cycle Song: 1

Trap her in thorn, and she’ll slip her skin
Drown her in water, she’ll learn to swim
Burn her, she’ll turn into smoke and wind
Think you can catch her?
Well, think again

Fox demon, foxy face
Foxgirls don’t know their place
Marry her, bury her
Water her bones
Set your sons over her
Let them to spy on her
Hound her and harry her
Pelt her with stones

Cunning, conniving
A vixen, a villain
She’ll pull out your liver
And eat it with rice
Fingers for turnips
And bowls full of maggots
Your blood in her wineglass
Runs colder than ice

The wide world over
They all try to tame her
Like Lilith and Lamia
Serpent and whore
Arcane she is, dangerous
Ever the demoness
Black widow, blood shadow
Thirsty for more

Seductive illusion
All craft and confusion
She’ll tuck up her tail
And take to the wood
She’ll duck as you’re nearing her
Fuck you for fearing her
Foxgirls are clever
And up to no good

At least, so they tell me
She’s up to no good
But do I believe them?
I don’t think I should

Trap her in thorn, and she’ll slip her skin
Drown her in water, she’ll learn to swim
Burn her, she’ll turn into smoke and wind
Think you can catch her?
Well, think again

(Editors’ Note: “Foxgirl Cycle Song: 1” is read by Erika Ensign in the Uncanny Magazine Podcast Episode 9A.)

C. S. E. Cooney

C. S. E. Cooney is the World Fantasy Award-winning author of Bone Swans: Stories. Her short novel, The Twice-Drowned Saint: Being a Tale of Fabulous Gelethel, the Invisible Wonders Who Rule There, and the Apostates Who Try to Escape its Walls, can be found in Mythic Delirium’s recent anthology, The Sinister Quartet. Both her forthcoming novel Saint Death’s Daughter and her story collection Dark Breakers, will be out in 2022. Other work includes Tor.com novella Desdemona and the Deep, and a poetry collection: How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes, which features her Rhysling Award-winning “The Sea King’s Second Bride.” Her short fiction and poetry can be found in Jonathan Strahan’s anthology Dragons, Ellen Datlow’s Mad Hatters and March Hares: All-New Stories from the World of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Rich Horton’s Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, and elsewhere. When she’s not writing, she’s designing games with her husband Carlos Hernandez, and recording albums of mythy-type music under the name Brimstone Rhine.

A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Foxgirl Cycle Song: 1

by C. S. E. Cooney in Uncanny Magazine Issue Nine | 308 Words

C. S. E. Cooney

Leave a Reply