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Maggie Dietz

BPR 50 | 2023

Now and now and never often
Enough or bright or light or dark
Enough this need to change the filter
Find the right who in the mirror
With the right hair

The trip to Walgreens always an
Emergency: something semipermanent
To stave off changes cut in stone

Your roots are ravaged, stunned
By bleach so the hair hardly grows
Now and short shed bits get wet
And stain the countertop with
Stubborn threads of red and
Blue and black and red again

In the sunlight—which you keep
From your dark room with ice blue
Strip lights streaking like a scar
Along the ceiling—I have seen

A halo of prismatic fire flaring
From the tips of your split ends

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