“Yoga Cat” © Judith Beth Cohen

 

Instructions for Sally at the Hairway to Heaven Salon

Gimme something fancy,
I told her,
style something new
those second pew
girls, sitting behind
their fellas who
yell AMEN brother,
that’s right, those ladies,
make it something
they’ve never seen.

Since I ain’t
got no wedding ring,
they won’t let me sit
down there close to Jesus,
so honey, make my
hair so fine
Jesus can’t help
lookin’ in the
back for me,

and make it
so big when
I walk outta
here won’t nobody
doubt I fear
God but don’t
care one bit
about what’s said
by anybody else.

 

Charles Richard Livesay is a teacher from Knoxville, TN. He watches birds, reads books, and sometimes forgets to take out his earbuds before he falls asleep. When that happens, HAIM haunts his dreams.

Judith Beth Cohen was born in Detroit Michigan and has been an educator and writer for decades. She’s taught at schools as progressive as Goddard College in Vermont, as traditional as Harvard University, and as human service oriented as Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. Her story collection, Never Be Normal (2021) is available from Atmosphere Press. Her novel, Seasons (1984) was published by The Permanent Press of Sag Harbor, New York and is still in print. She teaches yoga at a Senior Center. Her book of collages is Cats and Their Ladies: From the Wife of Bath to Willa Cather. (Shawmut Peninsula Press, Boston, Ma.)