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August 22, 2021

Type “Bangs” Into Google

Maya Nordine

When I descend onto the city from my apartment,
what does my hair say?

Please, check boxes for the following:

  • Poetic ambitions
  • Just dumped, or has been dumped
  • Cupboards brimming with vintage teacups
  • Lives to decoupage

The truth comes surging, whacks my forehead. I’m left without words,
except that according to HuffPost, it’s a decision most will consider.
Bangs: a low-risk option for changing an otherwise unremarkable
haircut. Allow me to shift a paradigm for you. Baby bangs are still in!
So why do I pay the price for being in fashion? I am so tired. Type bangs
into Google. Who wrote these one hundred ninety four million articles?
What brave investigator has taken on the philosophical question:
Should you get bangs? I’d like to meet them, let them have it—
Yes. I may write poetry. I’ve been dumped, but not since having
a visible forehead. I have two vintage teacups, which I melted down,
crafted into scented candles. I have never decoupaged,
though I’m curious.

Maya Nordine’s poems have been published or are forthcoming in The American Journal of Poetry, Small Orange, Silk Road Review, TYPO, and others. She spent the last two years running a virtual multi-genre writing workshop called Study Hall Workshops, and is an associate editor for Zoetic Press. She holds an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles.