2 Poems

Pantene

Extremely tiny pellets of it
zoom through your hair and moisturize it.

The girls of Allure say
it’s the best moderately priced shampoo.

The Herbal Essences women
have stopped dating men, instead they stay

home and wash their hair, moaning
and screaming – “a totally organic experience.”

The Breck girl rides her bike
in the sunshine, past a rural mailbox.

The people of Vidal Sassoon
turn their heads luxuriantly in a white room.

Last night I dreamed I was
squeezing a sample bottle of Prell

standing in the rear bathroom of a
ranch-style house, squeezing and squeezing.

Nothing came out the top,
but the TV popped on, with the volume up

all the way, like I had been standing on the remote.

The Silent Life

Horse lilies are the festive kind
of shrub you like to throw at weddings
and other cadenced affairs for good luck

or just for fun, depending on what kind
of pontooning flibbertigibbet you are.

Some people who have lustrous hair
never even stop to think about their
need to wear lustrous shoes so as not to seem

out-of-balance,

yet you see them at these same affairs
treading dully on not only the horse lilies
but other people’s feet,

drinking themselves to tears on brandy neat.

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