Frank Stanford

1948 - 1978 / Mississippi / United States

Everybody Who Is Dead

When a man knows another man
Is looking for him
He doesn't hide.

He doesn't wait
To spend another night
With his wife
Or put his children to sleep.

He puts on a clean shirt and a dark suit
And goes to the barber shop
To let another man shave him.

He shuts his eyes
Remembers himself as a boy
Lying naked on a rock by the water.

Then he asks for the special lotion.
The old men line up by the chair
And the barber pours a little
In each of their hands.
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