“Samson” rough draft
It’s late and I’ve had a long & emotional day visiting old friends. On my way to the bathroom to wash up for the night, this came to my mind. Here it is, (ironically) unedited/shaped in any way. I think there’s a few interesting things at work here: hair as a metaphor, which I always like. Also, the idea of growing up, and looking “grown up.” And the necessary allusion to Samson & Delilah anytime a woman cuts a man’s hair, only this time with the opposite effect of the Biblical precedent. Needs mulling over quite a bit, still. . .
“Samson”
In early summer I came home to find
your shorn hair in the sink, re-foresting
the floor tiles. you asked me to clean-up
the edges, and sat on the lip of the tub.
your brown body anchoring the white porcelain,
you laughed, Samson to my Deliliah,
while the brown threads fell
with each buzz and crackle.
Your power restored
(not diminished) in the clean lines
above your white collars.
that IS interesting – that somehow a clean haircut shores up a man’s power/reestablishes him out in the world. and that he needs someone else to do the cutting – that the act of the woman cutting it is necessary to reestablish maybe. good working!
I’ve also been thinking a lot about Barbershop culture, and how men used to cut men’s hair. In my experience, at least, I feel like the profession has been so feminized that women now more frequently cut men’s hair. Also, hair-cutting, like so many other things, used to be an activity within the home, and has now become commercialized. . . hmm. Thanks for reading, J.