La Nouvelle Vague
by Abby Stotz
The college auditorium shows old French movies
A mile from Edna’s family’s farm.
She wears knee socks to save her legs on the walk there.
Eyes wider than hard boiled eggs, Edna sits forward in her seat
Watching old movies on their second and third legs
Looking for salvation while watching a movie
The dusty screen crackles, attractive young Parisians
Run across a bridge, through the Louvre
Jeanne Moreau is so beautiful; Godard so smart
Anna Karina’s eyes are twin seas
Jean-Paul Belmondo wants to be Bogie
Edna wants to want to be Bogie
The Young Turks speak to her through thirty years, an ocean
She wants to dance in cafes, shuffling dances of desire
Wearing fedoras and killing time until
The lost generation finds itself
.
One Size
by Abby Stotz
Nice Girl Jeanie’s been a big girl all her life
She needs a pair of black tights
(New big girl skirt)
And ducks into that cute campus clothes shop
She slips out with tights
Jeanie is a nice girl
She makes brownies for her roommates
Cookies for her co-workers
At the dormitory cafeteria
Jeanie, the nice girl, can’t shop with her roommates
For clothes anyways
Because they are 0s, 2s, 6s
She is not. She is not. She is not a six.
But nice girl Jeanie’s okay with that.
Jeanie puts her new tights on the floor
To be picked up and put on tomorrow
She wakes up, nice girl morning, dresses
Tights come last
These tights are too small.
They strain, black elastic
Digs in pale thighs. This
Will not work. So
Nice Girl Jeanie wants to cry, tears push
Out of the corners of big blue eyes and
She squeezes them in and thinks
It’s winter, she has to wear tights.
The scissors on her desk sparkle in the morning light
From the window and girl Jeanie nicely picks them up
Smiles, and cuts the tights in half
They split apart, free, and one goes on each leg
Up to two inches above her knees
One size can fit all.
