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Thread: ~Haircut~

  1. #1
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    ~Haircut~

    The plumage
    of a rain-soaked crow
    looks better
    than the haircut I got
    from a gay old man.

    I think he was nervous.
    The electric pruner
    shook in his hand
    as my hair
    fell to the hardwood floor.

    "I think you should go to a barber." He said.

    "Yeah." I replied.

    Two months have passed,
    and I still haven't gone
    to a barber.

    No one seems to care.
    I haven't heard anyone say:

    "Your hair looks worse
    than a soggy crow."

    No one has asked:

    "Who cut your hair? A nervous, gay old man?"

    so I'm in no hurry
    to get to a barber.

    Someone did ask about the rent,
    which got me to move
    right away.

    I jammed my clothes
    into a bag
    and walked to the bus stop
    across the street from the apartment building.

    The bus arrived
    after about ten minutes.

    After taking a seat
    I noticed a fat chick
    reading a copy
    of Brautigan's: The Pill
    Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster.

    We began to talk,
    and soon it was decided
    that I would join her in the
    cheap hotel where she was staying.

    We got a bottle of Southern Comfort,
    because that's
    what she liked.

    When we got to her room she started
    to take things
    out of her large purse.

    The bottle of baby oil
    caught my eye.

    I wondered what the
    good people
    were doing this
    afternoon.

    Most
    were probably
    working
    or getting an education
    of some kind.

    Boy, I thought;
    how easy it could have been
    for me to have become
    one of them.
    "People who believe a lot of crap are better off." Charles Bukowski

  2. #2
    Original Poster Buh4Bee's Avatar
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    Dan- This is great. It reminds me of Kerouac On the Road when he hooks up with a Mexican girl that he met on a bus. I can't remember her name and she was described as beautiful. Not sure if you read it, I just did recently.

  3. #3
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    Thanks, Jersea. Chapter 12. Her name is "Terry."
    "People who believe a lot of crap are better off." Charles Bukowski

  4. #4
    Original Poster Buh4Bee's Avatar
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    That's right. Terry. Guess you are a fan.

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    I'm not really much of a Kerouac fan. I think On the Road was probably pretty cool for the time it was written, but after the '60's it lost much of its specialness. I was a hippy in the '60's. Now I'm just a wierdo. My favorite Beat poet is Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
    "People who believe a lot of crap are better off." Charles Bukowski

  6. #6
    Original Poster Buh4Bee's Avatar
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    I wanted to be a hippie in the 60s, so I'm out of place. Hah! I didn't really care for On the Road and I'm not all that well versed in the Beatniks. However, I am just trying to read as much good literature as I can. I haven't read Ferlinghetti.

  7. #7
    Haribol Acharya blazeofglory's Avatar
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    This is a good read and of course I like the way spoiled hair-cut is so poetically portrayed and such versification keep us amused and the same time there is a beauty the poet has been able to keep integral and such fusions are if truth be told singular. I am really engrossed in the poem deep down

    “Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature””

    “If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind! The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation.

  8. #8
    feathers firefangled's Avatar
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    Oh how your signature poet would enjoy this piece. I did.

    I like the way you establish the apathy of "those" people in the beginning. Not much is wasted in this poem.

    Are you a Brautigan fan?
    Last edited by firefangled; 11-15-2009 at 01:03 PM.

  9. #9
    Original Poster Buh4Bee's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by firefangled View Post
    Oh how your signature poet would enjoy this piece. I did.

    I like the way you establish the apathy of "those" people in the beginning. Not much is wasted in this poem.
    You are right on! I didn't even think of that.

  10. #10
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    Thanks, Blazeofglory. Glad you enjoy the poem.

    I find Brautigan amusing. I like his prose much more than I do his poetry. Sometimes I will put a dash of Brautigan spice in my own poems.

    I think the ending of this poem is very Buk-like, yes.
    "People who believe a lot of crap are better off." Charles Bukowski

  11. #11
    feathers firefangled's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DanBierce View Post

    I find Brautigan amusing. I like his prose much more than I do his poetry. Sometimes I will put a dash of Brautigan spice in my own poems.
    It may not be his best, but I have always loved the Brautigan poem, All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. The title is poem on its own.

  12. #12
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    Yeah, that's a good one. My favorite of his is the one below:

    ~Love's Not the Way to Treat a Friend~

    Love's not the way to treat a friend.
    I wouldn't wish that on you.
    I don't want to see your eyes forgotten
    on a rainy day, lost in the endless purse
    of those who can remember nothing.

    Love's not the way to treat a friend.
    I don't want to see you end up that way
    with your body being poured like wounded marble
    into the architecture of those
    who make bridges out of crippled birds.

    Love's not the way to treat a friend.
    There are so many better things for you
    than to see your feelings sold
    as magic lanterns
    to somebody whose body
    casts no light.
    "People who believe a lot of crap are better off." Charles Bukowski

  13. #13
    feathers firefangled's Avatar
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    That's a good one of Brautigan's too. He could certainly create powerful images.

  14. #14
    Not politically correct Pendragon's Avatar
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    Grabs the reader from that highly refreshing opening
    Some of us laugh
    Some of us cry
    Some of us smoke
    Some of us lie
    But it's all just the way
    that we cope with our lives...

  15. #15
    Registered User cogs's Avatar
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    this suddenly switches trains of thought. i don't think the character is as bad as he thinks, and not everything is taught in schools. the first part is amusing, and at least his hair was shorter. i guess it boils down to what's important to whom.

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