“How did you find me?”
“On the Internet.”
I sit in Giulia’s chair. Above my head
two eager hummingbirds hover.
Today it’s all about my thin,
straight, hard-to-cut brown hair,
barometer of my anxiety.
She runs her fingers through my hair. “I don’t
use comb or brush. Artists do not like
straight lines. Please, trust me? Okay?”
We stare into the mirror. I admire
her voluminous hair
and notice that her part is on a slant.
“I come from Tuscany. Do you know it?”
“I do. What brought you to Astoria?”
Her left hand lifts my hair. Her right hand
wields her savvy scissors. She visited
New York when she was just thirteen.
Singing, she clips and trims and shapes.
“I studied cosmetology,
But, if I were blind, I could…cut hair.
And you? What do you do?”
“I teach. And write.”
“You write? Oh, review me. What will you say?”
Later, I see my own reflection
in the glass at the bodega,
and I blush with pleasure.
A stranger stares then asks,
“Excuse me. Who cuts your hair?”
“Giulia on 31st Ave.
If she were blind, she could cut hair.”
Susan Delaney Spear is the author of two collections of poetry: Beyond All Bearing and On Earth...(Resource Publications). She is the co-author of Learning the Secrets of English Verse (with David J. Rothman, Springer). You can find her at www.susandelaneyspear.com