I.

Each season you redraw

the outline of your shadow.

Even when you stand still

the angle of the sun

moves the dark space

out of bounds, like the life

you thought you had

under control.

The window turns back wind.

The view is clear,

untainted by the quick

passage of light.

Years are like this:

constant but uncaring.

They pass through you

then are gone.

II.

Your skirt twists like a kite in wind.

You are not careful.

You have left your shoes at home.

Now, both feet down an inch in mud,

you cannot free your hips

to tempt his touch.

He bends you back

and down. Your knees weep

even as a song begins

in your throat,

to be finished at home

at night when you wash

between your toes.

Larry L. Fontenot (TX)  is the author of the chapbook, Choices & Consequences, winner of the Maverick Press 1996 Southwest Poets’ Series Chapbook competition. He was awarded an honorable mention in the 2004 Pebble Lake Review Poetry & Fiction Contest.