Gary Browe - JE-03

3. The BEST DEAL

I gave up
soaring for structure

and severed a part of me
in the deal.

At seventeen,
my father said,

“Cut your hair boy.
I'll get you a job.”

I remember the gleam …
of that
bargain-basement
blue-light-special
going off in my head …

as I twisted
his words
into something

I wanted to hear.

After graduation,
I cut my hair
and got me in that long line
longer than the
Saturday matinee …

… knowing
I had me that “pull”.

After my ninety
I grew my hair long again.

My little nose
just turned up at the world.

I've given up a lot
for structure.

Sold out
to what I believed to be
the best deal.

No telling
how far I could have gone …

… had I listened
to what my old man

wasn't saying.

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