Voicemail

Voicemail

Did you know I cut off all of my hair for you?

Took my grandmother’s little old sewing scissors

and chopped from the roots until my kitchen sink

was full of chestnut angel wings. I’m practically

bald now, still reaching for what I’ve destroyed.

That’s what you said, right? I destroy. I’ve

got a wildfire mouth, hands that are always breaking

the rules. And don’t think I’m out there looking

for you, waiting to throttle you or break your cowardly

bones. Because I know that’s how you like to think

these days. That I destroy. That I keep too much

for myself. That I’m too hungry. That I’m insane.

But I want you to listen, boy: I’m at the other end

of this telephone with a spark between my teeth.

Maybe I do destroy. Maybe I’ve got a Bermuda Triangle

belly. But at least I can accept that. And you know,

maybe I lied. Maybe I didn’t cut off all of my hair

for you. Maybe I cut it all off for myself.

I’m calling it beautiful malfunction.

I’m calling it rooted beginning.

I’m calling it fresh start.

Lydia Havens writes and lives in Tucson, Arizona. She works as the Executive Poetry Editor of Transcendence Magazine and as an intern for Spoken Futures, Inc. Her work has been published in FreezeRay Poetry, burntdistrict, and Words Dance, among other places. Lydia is an Aquarius and her hero is Leslie Knope. You can find her on Twitter at @lydiastormborn

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Cover Photo: Thomas Gillaspy (http://www.thomasgillaspy.com and http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasmichaelart/)