Home Haircut by James Crews

I run the clippers over his scalp
watching tufts of grown-out hair
gather at the blades of the guard
then fall away to the towel wrapped
around his shoulders, to the slats
of the deck, before being carried off
by a breeze to the far reaches of the yard.
Because no other hands can touch him
on this first warm day of spring,
I'm cutting my husband's hair, at last
snapping off the black plastic guard
and shaving a line at his neck as I imagine
robins, sparrows, and goldfinches
the next morning squabbling over
those softer, cast-off pieces of him now
scattered on the wind, now clamped
in their beaks, and lining the middle
of tucked-away nests as they dream
of hatchlings soon to be swaddled
in a bed of his blond curls.



James Crews is the author of three collections of poetry, The Book of What Stays, Telling My Father, and Bluebird. He is also the editor of Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. He lives with his husband in Shaftsbury, Vermont.