I acknowledged
I wanted
to take action
to do something
as the woman
began collecting
my hair clippings
but I was too scared
to ask what
she was
doing instead
of having me pay
she explained
herself & told me
she was making
her husband
a new toupee out
of my hair & therefore
out of me she
liked my hair
but I don’t
understand how
she can just
make a toupee
out of a stranger’s hair
logistically & without asking
especially considering
law & risk of disease
in the future
when she makes
love to her husband
in my hair will she
think of me
as she climaxes
or alternatively
will my non-
existent lover
think of the man
he passes on the street
with my hair on his head
these questions are
bothering me
in a way not unlike
the questions:
when will Graham
get home & when
will I stop eating food
my body can’t digest
& when will this pimple
on my forehead disappear
tonight I am alert
& questioning
most of what I know
to be honest
I would like
the answers
now but need to
be more patient
in a poem I once wrote
that Kmart came to me
(though it was actually
I that went to Kmart)
& gave me
answers & solutions
to all my questions
but someone told me
I should stop
writing about Kmart
& start writing
about real issues
which made me
laugh & ask
about the difference
between the two
what I didn’t tell
her was that the poem
about Kmart was actually
a poem about sadness
but I tell myself poems
about sadness are worthy
of eye rolls in a bad way & I
don’t want to be given anything
in a bad way so instead
I wrote a poem about Kmart
which is where
I used to buy
antidepressants when I was sad
in the clinical sort of way
I wish now that I had asked
the person against Kmart
poems what I should write
about to make her happy
my mind drifts
to the time Jack Kerouac
told Frank O’Hara
he was ruining American poetry
& Frank smiled while saying
“that’s more than you
ever did for it” & like
the diva he was walked away
from the microphone & though
this person never told me
anything that extreme
& though I am awful
at comebacks & even
though I know how
inappropriate it is to compare
myself to Frank O’Hara
in literally any regard
but especially this
I’m having a day
& will do what I please
Colin Drohan is from Chicago and lives both in New York and on Twitter @colindrohan.