Photo: Chrispitality

Vancouver CityPoem: Haircut, Henri Cole

Haircut

I sit on the dock for a haircut and watch
as summer spreads out, relieving the general,
indiscriminate gray, like a mouthful of gin
spreading out through the capillaries
of my brain, etherizing everything
it is too painful to think or say,
as I dangle my feet in the water,
like bits of a man. On the goldenrod,
Japanese beetles are holding an orgy.
The green snake throws off its enameled skin.
And somewhere — invisible as the avenues
of the dead — a little door is left open for love,
pushing and pulling at each of us, as the water
pushes and pulls at my young gray hairs.

Henri Cole
Spring 2005


About the author

Henri Cole (born 1956) is a poet. He was born in Fukuoka, Japan and raised in Virginia, United States. His books of poetry include: Middle Earth (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003), The Visible Man (1998), The Look of Things (1995), The Zoo Wheel of Knowledge (1989), and The Marble Queen (1986). From 1982 until 1988 he was executive director of The Academy of American Poets. Since that time he has held many teaching positions and been the artist-in-residence at various institutions, including Brandeis University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Yale University, Reed College, and Smith College. Henri Cole is currently poet-in-residence at his alma mater, The College of William and Mary.