Barbershop Poem by Donal Mahoney

Hair salons for men
are everywhere now.
Not many barbershops
like Herman’s any more,
the walls lined
with ancient men
in folding chairs,
most of them gray,
balding, long retired.

Many come to Herman’s
on canes, crutches, walkers.
One man brings his wife behind
an oxygen tank on wheels.
Ladies are welcome
at Herman’s Shop in
cases of emergency.

When it’s time for a trim
the place to go is Herman's
even though he's older
than many of the men.
He conducts monologues
behind the barber chair
while waving scissors.

Herman preaches about
everything except religion.
Like smoking, religion
is forbidden in the shop
although Herman once
told a customer
he believes in God
and had seen him.

Herman saw Jesus in 1951,
he told the customer,
while lying on the ground
bleeding in the grass
somewhere in Korea.
Jesus walked up with
a medic alongside him.
Two days later Herman
was on a cargo plane
flying to meet a surgeon.
Everything’s been good,
Herman said, since then.