intricate rituals for touch

maggie chirdo

Hello Kitty tattoos coat the arms of the woman
cutting my hair and I can’t help but love her. To
love is to trust — I’ve put my most precious asset in her care, take
her warning seriously:
New Orleans is very busy
followed up with Spiritually, I mean.
Tourists and crowds never bothered me and I try immensely
not to bother the dead,
only reach out to a few
in the cold hours
of morning. Groggily think
of my Uncle Ross or Dickinson
or the last Russian princesses
and every dog I’ve ever known.
Why question the dead
when I can let them
play with my hair instead?
Do not shout, do not
demand proof, only sit still
a head in sure hands.

about the author

Maggie Chirdo (she/her(s)) is a writer from a humid slice of southeast Texas. Her poetry and journalism appears in Texas Observer, Entropy Magazine, Bitch Media, Little Blue Marble, and elsewhere. If Twitter still exists, come chat with her about fashion and the queer southern gothic @maggiechirdo.