The Atlantic | June 2001 | The Razor

Contents | June 2001

In This Issue (Contributors)

More poetry from The Atlantic Monthly.

Also by Donald Hall:
When the Young Husband ... (1993)
The Wedding Couple (1996)
Distressed Haiku (2000)

The Atlantic Monthly | June 2001

The Razor

by Donald Hall

.....

She sat in the booth
across from him in shadow
and her wide brown eyes
softened and flared
as she spoke remembering
the sickly adored
father of her girlhood—
how she brought him tea
and his newspaper; how
she stood beside him
while he shaved, her head
as high as the washbowl,
and lathered her face
the way he did, and shaved
using her forefinger
as a Gillette Safety Razor.

Her voice in an ardor
of old tenderness
lightened the darkness
of the bar at midnight.
She pigtailed his hair
and in his room rubbed
moisturizer from a jar
to smooth his wrinkles.