We all know Henrietta
is that woman on the front porch
on a summer day in Mississippi,
her genes shot through
with Faulkner, lemonade, the fan,
the woman the country doctor wants to marry.

Henrietta whose chin will never break
quotes scripture with her eyes.
She’s the woman who walks
under live oaks
that do all the weeping.

A hundred years from now
she will still be there,
the woman who spends hours
undoing and combing her hair
in front of a mirror each night,
the dresser clinking
with fine bottles of scent.

She will not go into town alone
rather write to her sister
married to a boy in Indiana—
My blood has stopped, Olive,
it’s been months now.

Henrietta—we all know this—
gently closes the front door
each evening at the same time.
She means to call someone
about the kudzu.
She will open the night stand drawer again
give it serious thought.

LENNY DELLAROCCA has had poems in numerous literary magazines since 1980 including: Poet Lore, Poetrybay, 2River view, and Fairy Tale Review, The Sleep Talker, is available at Night Ballet Press. DellaRocca is founder and co-publisher of South Florida Poetry Journal- SoFloPoJo and Interview With a Poet both at southfloridapoetryjournal.com