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    AC Benus
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Poetry - 63. The Barber

.

[The Barber]

 

He was a barber

and some of the kids

used to yell queer at him

as they strolled by his shop.

He

would always tighten his grip

on his scissors,

breathe deeply

and stare off into the mirrors

for a moment,

imagining himself

crying with rage.

And then

he would go on with

his work

with the same composure

as always.

 

He was a barber

and when I strolled by

his shop I used to stop outside

and cruise him.

He

would always tighten his grip

on his scissors,

breathe deeply

and stare off into the mirrors

for a moment,

imagining himself

in bed with me.

And then

he would go on with

his work

with the same discomposure

as sometimes.

—Ernesto Bañuelos Enríquez,[i]

1978

 

 

 

 


[i] “The Barber” Ernesto Bañuelos Enríquez, from “The Story of Myself and Some Friends in These Fragments of Daily Loves” reprinted in Now the Volcano: An Anthology of Latin American Gay Literature [Winston Leyland, Editor] (San Francisco 1979), ps. 77-79

https://archive.org/details/nowvolcanoanthol00leylrich/page/76/mode/2up

_

as noted
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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2 hours ago, Parker Owens said:

This a marvel of brevity and storytelling.  So much is packed into these few words. 

Thank you, Parker. I held this poem back from the others, to post on its own, precisely because it paints such a vivid vignette all by itself. 

Edited by AC Benus
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