ASSEMBLY LINE HACK WORK

My creative fallow period continues. These things happen. I tell myself you have to take in before you can give out, experience before description or synthesis of events.  I was looking for a poem for this week's post and I was reminded of a memory from childhood of going to the barbers. It prompted this.

A MEMORY

the choice of haircuts

in that small northern town

was either short back and sides

or if common and prone to violence

a crew-cut

neither held grace

nor needed skill to reproduce

it was just assembly line hack work

on the last day of the school holidays

in and out of the barbers in ten minutes flat

my reluctant footsteps took me there

and embarrassment reddened

my newly exposed neck and ears

as I trudged back home

wondering where the summer had fled

A minor poem at best, with echoes of a much earlier work. Back in the early 60s there were only two haircuts, it was something else The Beatles changed. Think yourself lucky if you did not have to live in such strictures. Here's a very old jotting.

in this new city

I hunt for poems

on the faces

of the people

walking purposefully

watching the traffic

crossing roads

carrying shopping bags

or sipping coffee

on this terrace

that overlooks the square

I like to sit in sunny squares and watch the big parade of life flow by around me. It is good writing practice to try and capture the scene. Here's to warmer days.

Here's a video by the sublime Lizzy Nunnery & Vidar Norhiem. You can get their latest album here, it's excellent.

Until next time.