An Ulta Store in Ohio
after Allen Ginsberg
What thoughts I have of you tonight, Allen Ginsberg, for I have driven the rain-soaked streets of Youngstown, Ohio.
And in my despair, and longing for companionship, for someone to fill the ever-expanding void in my soul, I went into the neon Ulta Store, pondering your epic effusions.
What hair dyes and bleaches! What displays of shampoos and conditioners and mousses, Allen! Whole families shopping for body lotion, nail polish, and shaving creams at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the salon, getting their hair permed, babies crying! – And you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the shampoo bowl, massaging a blond boy’s scalp?
I saw you, Allen Ginsberg, childless, lonely old codger, poking among the eye shadows and lip liners, eyeing the male hair dressers . . . . I watched you tweeze your beard, your eyebrows, and nose hairs in the aisle.
I heard you asking questions: Who killed that woman’s hair? What price is beauty? And to the newly coiffed Don Juan, Are you my Angel?
I thought of this parody when I was shopping at the Ulta Store one night in the midst of a rain storm. The store was packed, and I saw this bearded fellow that reminded me so much of Allen Ginsberg. Suddenly I missed him. I so love his poem, "A Supermarket in California."
The rest of this poem and a few more of my poems are in Mipoesias at http://mipoesias.com/
The editor Didi Menendez is a talented portrait artist as well as editor, poet and writer.
If the link doesn't work well, try this in your search: http://mipo.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/mipoesias2.pdf
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