The Back Room In The Barber Shop

My barber

Told me about a back room they have there

Where they take the people that come in with cancer

That have to get that cut

He said

Most of the women

Cry

Hysterically

As they watch their hair get chopped off

And fall to the ground

I told him I just want a trim

Because I met a woman once

Who had just lost all of her hair

Her 3rd bout with cancer

And she was a gem

She stopped mid-sentence one day

And said she loved my hair

She smiled her childlike smile at me

I didn’t know what to say

I never gave a shit about my hair before

I told my barber

That in that moment

I decided I was going to grow out my hair

And donate to one of those ladies

That cries hysterically

In the back room of barber shops

Because thinking about that moment

And

Of Susan Ball’s bald head and big smile

It breaks my heart too

And if my hair

Can bring some sort of comfort

To a dying lady

Then fuck yeah

I will grow it out and chop it off.

-C.H.