Simplicity itself

"It's really pouring outside right now,"
I told the woman trimming my hair

The buzzing of the clippers matching
clumps of black strands
falling in my lap

And the inane excess of pop music
on Top 40 radio
Eating away at my ears in the same way

4 down to a 2
Blend it in on top
leave some in the front
I think my hairline is revealing
too much of my modest forehead

I could only stare out the window
while she worked on the sides

It's just as well though
The glass was a mirror
but of a rare society
That I watched like a cat
perched on the sill

Cars created waves by the sidewalk
as they cautiously outmaneuvered
one another

Driving more carefully than if the moon were
shining pregnant on a dry summer evening
Her womb full of life

Blinding midnight light

In this storm the only brilliant shine
was the low beams
bleeding into the soup covered streets
Emanating from family sedans in rush hour traffic
fighting their way upstream
like spawning salmon

However, comparing humanity to trout
was a flawed metaphor
because they only make the trip once and die
while these folks kill themselves
five days a week

"I'm glad," she said,
Talking to my reflection
and so to me.
"We needed this rain."

It was then that I realized
Wisdom is not found exclusively in lecture halls
where we may only roam a four walled aquarium
and surmise what the vast ocean is like

And I knew that I could be happy
not despite myself
but because of who I am

I needed the rain more than she could have guessed

The haircut paid for in full
I joined the other fish
With a smile stretching from gill to gill.