One Size Fits All.

[billy]

A middle aged reflection:
Smocked and prepped, chin on chest
riding the barber’s chair

Childhood thoughts, seep and spill
into the calming snip-snip
Sharp steel blades dance and caress
a receding hairline

“One size fits all”

Saturday evening, haircut:
A chair and fifteen nervous boys
lined up against the institutionalized green
of a dark, brick painted corridor

“Who’s first?”

No one moves:
Blunt scissors leave scars
the finger points;
better to volunteer when the finger points
less painful.

Adorned in Pyrex;
I snigger, fear shows benign brevity
to fourteen cohorts.
A knee connects to my ribcage
bends me, the glass bowl falls
shatters into pain
around black size tens.

An alarm bell rings, men run
feet and fists move me to bed;
thin sheets only cover, never protect.
Warm blood swallowed from broken nose
comforts; something to focus on.
Don’t cry, never cry, never ever cry.

“Does Sir have something in his eye?”