Hair Length

It takes a year
to grow four inches of hair.
When I see hair
gently creeping down a back,
an ass, a thigh:
that's at least six years
getting to know it,
eight years without
rash act of shears,
ten years of growing into.

By then, they either know what they are
or it's time for a change.
Black, yellow, brown, red
looking to find out in growing
how the hell to live with it.


          first published in Wind Row, Spring, 1984.