Fox Tales

by Doug Mathewson

Japanese medieval literature has a reoccurring theme of foxes who turn themselves into women to to trick and deceive the unwary. Corrupt magistrates are embarrassed, dishonest merchants are exposed, and unfaithful lovers revealed. In one story an imaginative woman said, “I just can’t believe you thought it was me! It was so obviously a magical fox taking my place who did and said all these things. You must be quite foolish, to be so easily deceived.” If we could speak the language of foxes, what might they have to say on the subject?

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Doug Mathewson writes short fiction, essays and poetry. His current project is titled “True Stories From Imaginary Lives.” He's been published most recently by PenPricks Micro-Fiction, Creative Soup, and Tuesday Shorts. His poetry will appear in the March issue of eMuse-zine. More of his work is available on his blog.