Copihue Poetry

Mario Obrero, translated by Katherine M. Hedeen
and Víctor Rodríguez Núñez

The Hairdressing

In a hair salon in Fayetteville Washington gets highlights while Jefferson and Hamilton discuss the advantages and disadvantages of blueberry-scented shampoo the mothers and their soapy heads read Plath poems and the wardens wear plastic flowers in their lapels the mirror is full of paper swans folded by Chick-fil-A managers among the Romare Bearden covens you see Arthur Miller come in with a canary on his shoulder you see workers come in inaugurating a new party of leftists and the girls with red oilpaint stars you see the foreigners saying just a trim and in their languages blaspheming the hair salon packed with Great Danes wrapped in sweet potatoes and empty shells the wall-to-wall carpeting is flooded with curly messages.