Foreigner’s Haircut by R. Nemo Hill | Poetry

Poetry – Issue 3 | February 2009

Foreigner’s Haircut

by R. Nemo Hill

Placed on the garden path’s uneven stones
the bamboo stool tips slightly to one side.
Close to my ear, I hear the squeaking tones
of scissor blades. Sometimes I catch the eyes
of several young boys seated at my feet
who stare in blank amazement, unabashed.
They know already that I sleep, and eat—
but here is evidence far more concrete,
more intimately human.
Shorn, unmasked,
I shower, check the mirror, step outside
to hang my towel in the sun. The last
few fallen locks of my own hair blow by—
re-animated by a passing breeze,
mixed with mimosa and hibiscus leaves.

Petulu, Bali—1997

R. Nemo Hill lives in New York City, but travels extensively in Southeast Asia each year, where his experiences have run the gamut from intestinal bleeding to intellectual ecstasy. His poetry and fiction have appeared in online venues such as The Chimaera, Measure, Poetry, Sulfur, Smartish Pace, and The Shit Creek Review. He is the author of a novel, Pilgrim’s Feather, a narrative poem, The Strange Music of Erich Zann, and a chapbook, Prolegomena To An Essay On Satire

Visit R. Nemo Hill’s travel journal.

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Literary Bohemian

Poetry – Issue 3 | February 2009