Barber of the Pea
for John Ashbery
“Good Barber of the Pea!” I exhumed,
high into the vag
where the barber keeps his
pea—
“Good Sprout!” His mouth, his gray
and hunted tongue
always in the distance—
"No use denying
we master the particular service
we deny ourselves. In the shade of this pea
(the sum of his shade and the gavel
flexing above his head)
I will become
a milliner to cover what work I’ve
done. Or else, I’ll begin anew
at the infant chin,
where nothing grows but chins!
Outside, snails, vines, surpass me
and must—gaining pews upon
pews. But don’t think for a sec
I don’t know the way out of here, that release is
one hair—spiral stair—top of which
cleavage evaporates”
Copyright Credit: Farnoosh Fathi, "Barber of the Pea." Copyright © 2016 by Farnoosh Fathi. Used by permission of the author for PoetryNow, a partnership between the Poetry Foundation and the WFMT Radio Network.
Source: PoetryNow (2016)