Jean Sprackland
The Hairdresser's Across the Street
When they're alone and think no-one's watching
some of the customers pick up the bottles of stuff,
unscrew them and sniff.
They lean towards the mirror
and look at their teeth.
When the stylist comes back they're always
idling through Homes & Gardens or Hello.
But today a woman with a white perm
has been having it washed. I've been watching
the way her hair is so much longer wet.
His hands were bunching it and raking it loose
under the tap. Then he left the room.
He was gone and gone. The woman was alone
with her head back in the cut-away basin.
Do you know how it feels
to be left like that, the water running off your hair?
You don't like to sit up and call for service.
A few bubbles fizz close to your ear.
You start to shiver. The muscles are tight
in the back of your neck,
your throat arched and naked.
Swallowing your own saliva
is like swallowing rocks.
I watch the woman until I think she must be asleep
in that back-to-front black nylon cape. She's so still
I wonder whether she's died.
If the stylist doesn't get off the phone soon
he'll forget her, and she'll still be there
when he grabs his jacket, sets the alarm
and locks the place shut behind him.
The tick of the cooling dryers into the dusk.
Her hair dripping slow, slower.
Page(s) 21
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