Margins                                                            


            If I got the story straight
            A missing nail once cost someone his crown
 
            Served him right
 
            But that’s just one side of the coin:
            What happens to a realm
            When something extra crashes the party
            Like, for instance,
            A hair?
 
            “A hair? Are you kidding?”
            You’re probably saying to yourself
 
            “No, I’m not”
 
            It wasn’t curled or grisly looking
            Or especially long
 
            Just an ordinary hair
            Only blonde
 
            And in a bowl of chicken soup
            It might have gone unnoticed
            Altogether
 
            Stretched out, however, on my pillow
            Without a care in the world
            It was impossible to miss
            And even harder to explain
 
            I was bald at the time
            And it didn’t match my girlfriend’s aubergine
 
            Well, the cold war turned to hot
            Which speeded up the race to end it all
 
            Instead of losing by a nose
            As I had planned
 
            I won
 
            Just by a hair


            ________________________________________________________________________


            Emanuel E. García, Sinking In, One Hundred Poems2013

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