Portrait

Utterly fetching: a flowered shirt
and brightly plaided trousers
draped his tall, slight frame to
defray the swift impression of
facing a wraith whom a sharply spoken
word might topple like a tornado
uprooting a shallow-rooted tree.
The generous mouth that nature
had planted within his lean and
handsome features curved readily
in pleasure. Some other creative
genius was clearly responsible for
the young hairdresser's own garish
yellow Sioux-cut hair. A massive
gold-linked neck chain completing the
theatrical conceit that almost broke
the grandmotherly heart of the client
whose hair he was primping to
kindly withdraw the weight of
recent years. While informing her
how pleasantly surprising he found
Chicago, how his parents' concerns
for his well-being simply stifled him
at times with their love ... lucky boy.