Larry Fontenot: Two Poems
A Very Thin Woman in Red Stockings | Just Before the Door Slams

A Very Thin Woman in Red Stockings

She wrote her name and number in his book,
fragile marks that resembled
the wingbones of a bird.
Later,
he knocked at her door,
held her lightly like a handkerchief,
followed her through the family room.
He slipped the purple dress off her narrow shoulders,
stripped red stockings from translucent legs.
When they lay together,
they touched in very few places.
She rose when they were done,
gave him back his shoes,
showed him to the open door.
Then she went to sleep to the sound
of someone knocking at the window.
He was outside,
waiting for wounded-bird words
to leave her mouth
and fly,
like nightingales.

Just Before the Door Slams

Sitting by the belly of the Buddha
in the backyard garden, a blackbird
gnaws the head of a worm.
The man and woman stand at a window.
When she shifts her head to be kissed
he leans into her face like a north wind
careening over hills beaten out of bush.
It doesn’t take the oracle to plan
this journey. Each has a message to convey
but wishes the other would guess
the story’s ending, then go away
on a quick flight in one direction,
no round ticket, just one small bag
to carry on board.

Poet's Biography:

Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1945, Larry Fontenot has made his home in Sugar Land, Texas, since 1981. He is a member of the Twitching Limes Ensemble, a local troupe of poets active in the Gulf Coast area. He has had poetry published in Arrowsmith, Bayousphere, Chachalaca Poetry Review, Chapultepec Press, Conspire, Houston Propaganda, i.e. magazine, Lowlands Review, Maverick Press, Maelstrom, Minimus, Red Crow, RiverSedge, Savoy Magazine, The Lucid Stone, Treasure House, and upcoming in Sulphur River Literary Review. Larry was the Featured Poet at the 1996 Houston Poetry Fest and a Juried Poet at the 1998 Fest. A chapbook, Choices & Consequences, was the winner of the Maverick Press 1996 Southwest Poets’ Series Chapbook competition.