The Painter
She sits in the hairdressers
shrouded in products and bleach,
her inners pulsing; fear protruding,
the tick tocks spacing her rhythms
trying to reassure her heart.
The hairdresser paints her hair with colours and tin foil.
She wonders if this painter can see through her –
inside her head,
the head that is rehearsing the geography of her home,
counting numbers and ticks to keep safe.
* Fiona Donaghey says “I'm a student at City College Norwich and belong to a great poetry group hosted by the poet Helen Ivory”.
