Great Clips

The following poem draft was written for my poetry group based on Gary Snyder's "Bubb 's Creek Haircut," one of my favorite poems

Great Clips Mohawk Trail Plaza 

hair salon in Greenfield, MA next door to Big Y

a uni-sex cut arises out of shorn chemo curls

carpeted in arcs on linoleum floor

I may not spit like a man but I got me

a man's haircut still burning with shame

silent chants of Tare Tare Tare to calm 

my already bad day worse

deemed an ugly visage staring scornfully back at me
earlier check up at Valley Medical

blood glucose higher than usual

blood pressure ok

looking forward to Mississippi trip 

practice with Ingmar and Sergio

moderate meals eaten same time everyday

thinking of snakes awakening seeking reprieve

from winter cold

can they really come into the house 

through plumbing to curl up

under toasty bed covers

sneaking about a common feature 
of Mississippi life

I read on the internet

now, I'm decades back 

at Tara Mandala siting on the banks of San

Juan river naked with the Methodist mom

Rocketeller wife as we watch our friends

across the river squealing in joy playing with Ute mud

said to be healing

then a snake swimming upstream towards 
the embankment with ladies its flat torpedic head

hideous sensing targets

crackling twigs behind us as two men 
with heavy boots stand above us

while we cover ourselves best we can

then evaporate into the bushes

were they real or another snake vision

Pondering all this jumble

snakes real or not

as I tip Jesse at Great Clips Hair Cuts.

February 2, 2019
Revised May 21, 2019
Highland Village
in Shelburne Falls, MA