Poets Needed
"Poets come out of your closets, open your windows, open your doors, you have been holed up too long in your closed worlds. Come down, come down . . ." --Ferlinghetti
Open mic poetry readings every thursday at 8pm with
your local Cooper-Youngin' Kim Hooss. Please bring
your heart with you.
Java Cabana Weekly Poem
At the Beauty Shop Having a Breakdown
by Mary Burns
Now you just set yourself right down and listen here
while I shampoo your pretty hair. I'm going to tell you
like I tell my three girls. My oldest one is twenty-nine.
A woman always has the upper hand. You hear.
A man will push you as far as you let him. Yes ma'am.
I can tell by the way you are crying, you love
your man more than you love yourself. Never go
loving a man more than you love yourself. No ma'am.
You need to jazz it up. He'll be out in the cold
shoveling snow if you put that foot down.
A pretty girl like you. And you got a figure too.
Why you need to be out there celebrating.
You're not ugly. You're not fat. And you're sitting
here crying over a man who don't have enough sense
to treat you like a woman needs to be treated. Yes ma'am.
A pretty girl like you. You married to him? Why thank the lord.
No need to be crying. Look here at your pretty hair.
I 'll tell you what my oldest daughter says,
she says, "Mama, men use to be worth a dime a dozen,
now they're worth a penny." You got children by him?
Well thank the lord, you sitting here upset you'd be miserable
tied up with a man like that all your days. Yes ma'am. A pretty
girl like you. You better listen to me, I'm telling you like I tell
my own daughters. A good man is right around the corner.
Even a bad man has got a few good men around him. And they watch
and wait for his woman to leave and when she does, there is a good man
around to make sure she gets in good hands, Yes ma'am, maybe even his.
A pretty girl like you. You better listen to me. This old woman knows her words.
A woman always has the upper hand. Yes ma'am.
Want to read previous poems? Check out our poetry archive