Surviving
You should get your hair cut, mother,
it doesn’t suit your face like that.
They’re right, I know,
but I have seen my
skull
riding on my neck
bold and bald as a
moon.
When the first faint
fleece grew back
I threw away the hats
and let it grow.
Daughters, I do not
need it cut
to know how hair can
fall.
* Gill McEvoy has two pamphlets to her name: Uncertain Days (2006) and A Sampler (2008) both from HappenStance Press. And her first full collection The Plucking Shed (2010) is available now from Cinnamon Press.