Tonight I cut her hair,
an intimate scalping…
a butchering of beauty.How inadequate my scissors
for this surgery,
slowly staged
to ease the reality
to be faced in every mirror…mirror on the wall
who has cancer…First long tresses
to only tears…
this sacred shearing
my soul left bare.
Someone I had met only a short time before this sacred moment, had been diagnosed with cancer. She had a hysterectomy and then went through a round of chemo and as she began to loose her hair, she asked me to cut it before she lost much of it. She had thick curly hair that she was proud of. I tried to spare her by cutting in increments, but in the end it all came off.
Open Ears 
Reblogged this on Darren Hobson Poet.
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Thank you.
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🙂
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I well remember the “being sheared”…very emotional…had it cut really short and a wig styled to wear…a few days later I shaved the very short hair off and tossed the wig into the far corner of my closet where it still lies…
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Usually taken for granted, hair is an important part of our body image. Given back to God, it becomes part of a holy offering. Helping this woman cut her hair, emptied me… and she had the deeper struggle!
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You have a deeper understanding of this poem. It is one thing to get a short haircut by choice…but, you understand that it is totally another to lose it to chemo.
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This is so touching. My sister in Christ, one of my very best friends in the world, will begin chemo soon due to breast cancer. Thank you for sharing this.
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I’m so sorry for your friend.
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How beautiful! What loving trust between the two of you to share such a moment. That moment for me was 17 years ago but the emotion of it can be brought back in an instant. In my moment of shearing I was alone – sacred music playing and me singing through tears.
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I’m at a lose for words. I’ve only walked with individuals through their experience with cancer and have not experienced it first hand. Thank you for sharing this.
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Shared with my book club.
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Thank you Ann. I’m honored.
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