In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • The Story about the Birds Changes after the Baby Is Born, and: Poem Without New Year’s Resolutions
  • Carrie Fountain (bio)

The Story about the Birds Changes after the Baby Is Born

Why have I held onto it so tightly, grippingits thin wrist, dragging it behind me all these

years, hurry up. It was summertime in the desert—inarticulate summertime—and the boys

were popping grackles off a wire with their b-b guns.The ones they didn’t hit kept coming back, shaking

the heat out of their feathers and looking aroundwith their unwieldy eyes. Stupid birds is what

the one boy said. Because I was watching them,he’d turn every once in a while and point his gun

at me and the other boys would laugh, not knowingwhat to do. He was having a bad childhood, but

who wasn’t? I didn’t fly away. I stayed where I was.But I wanted to go. In the story, that had always

been enough. But it’s not enough anymore.So I’m giving this story away. [End Page 166]

Poem Without New Year’s Resolutions

Maybe it’s no longer a pure kind of behavioryou seek, with so much breathing in it

and so much regret. What if you make only thisdark morning yours, and the insane thuds

the giant dumpsters make behind the strip mallwhen they’re tossed back to the pavement

by the trash truck? Let Spanish go, let runninggo, let yoga do flawless back walkovers across

the dead lawn in its very flattering leotard,let it just be gone. Let this body

be the body you’ll carry forward, at leastinto this day. Let the sound of the dumpsters

wake the baby so she starts calling for youtoo early, Come upping me right now!

in her new businessy voice. What if this is justyour luck and all you need to do is let it

come into the room—just let it come—let ittake off its coat and talk to a few people

before you reach for its elbow, kiss its cheekand start telling it what it owes you? [End Page 167]

Carrie Fountain

carrie fountain’s poems have appeared in the American Poetry Review, Poetry, and Tin House. Her first collection, Burn Lake, was a winner of the 2009 National Poetry Series Award and was published by Penguin in 2010. Her second collection, Instant Winner, will be published by Penguin in 2014. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, the playwright Kirk Lynn, and their children.

...

pdf

Share