nothing major

like when I was 5 

and my parents

didn't want to deal with 

my wild child country bumpkin hair

so they took me to penny's

on main street in rosendale

she couldn't get her comb

through all the knots and tangles

so she lopped off the hair

and shaped it into the classic

bowl cut 

or when I was 17 

heading down the basement stairs

to astor place hairstylists with allie

bob dylan bouncing in my head

long distance internet boyfriend

east village energy

life affirming 

$20 changing hands

or when I was 20

and drove to androgyny,

the converted barn turned hair salon in new paltz

where Sylvia, a brazilian lesbian,

told me her life story

as she cut the hairs bit by bit

from the bottom to almost the roots --

a spell to cure my blues 

of being in some wrong place

where everyone stood above me

and looked down 

this was just a trim

my small change

letting go of the bits of hairs

that emerged from my scalp

about 3 years ago

in the days of early motherhood

Penny’s