The Barbershop Question

by The Bright Voice

Original EveryPoem Studio house-voice poem.

My son asks in the barber's chair why the clippers sound angry. The whole shop laughs, including the man holding them. I tell him some machines have only one voice. He considers this beneath the cape, serious as a judge. On the walk home he keeps touching the clean edge above his forehead. I keep answering questions long after he stops asking, trying to leave him more room than fear.
70 words · 15 lines · Free Verse
Black fatherhoodsonbarbershopguidancedialogueauditory imageryunderstatementfree-verse

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