{"id":2696,"date":"2022-10-25T18:19:08","date_gmt":"2022-10-25T22:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/?page_id=2696"},"modified":"2022-11-02T11:39:36","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T15:39:36","slug":"barbershop","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/poetry-archive\/barbershop\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbershop"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Young

“Capturing the Moment” by Jim Ross<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Barbershop<\/h2>\n

by Robert Piazza<\/p>\n

Old men leaf through girlie magazines
\n  while Grandpop pumps his shaving cream.<\/p>\n

Amidst the scent of talc and cologne,
\n  a customer dials the telephone.<\/p>\n

This is April, 1975\u2014
\n  Oldsmobiles are parked outside.<\/p>\n

Beneath the upholstered swivel-chair
\n  lies a devastated grove of hair.<\/p>\n

Blue bottles of sterilized scissors
\n  line the wall-length mirrors.<\/p>\n

Playing charades, everyone I see
\n  reflects a secret part of me\u2014I hide<\/p>\n

behind model-airplane magazines,
\n  lost in boyhood fantasies<\/p>\n

of gunners strafing submarines.
\n  Meanwhile, the FM radio drones<\/p>\n

like engines of bombers chugging along;
\n  Grandpop hums Sinatra\u2019s songs.<\/p>\n

Why is my mind a battle zone?
\n  Life is hell when Dad comes home<\/p>\n

from carburetor factories
\n  where forges flair a thousand degrees.<\/p>\n

He hurls a can of kidney beans
\n  at politicians on the TV screen.<\/p>\n

Spilling a pitcher of lemonade,
\n  my mother ducks his hand grenade,<\/p>\n

and little sister stifles a sneeze.
\n  The news reports how Vietnamese<\/p>\n

teens were raped by US Marines.
\n  Behind their napes, clippers buzz<\/p>\n

like hornets in old men\u2019s ears;
\n  Grandpop snips their barbwire beards.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rob Piazza<\/b><\/span>\u2019s poems have appeared most recently in\u00a0Heart of Flesh Journal<\/i>\u00a0*and*\u00a0Young Ravens Review<\/i>. He serves as Poet Laureate of\u00a0Litchfield, Connecticut.\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/www.pw.org\/directory\/writers\/robert_piazza<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Barbershop by Robert Piazza Old men leaf through girlie magazines   while Grandpop pumps his shaving cream. Amidst the scent of talc and cologne,   a customer dials the telephone. This Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6089,"featured_media":0,"parent":1261,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2696"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2755,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2696\/revisions\/2755"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}