American Life in Poetry BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006 Our poet this week is 16-year-old Devon Regina DeSalva of Los Angeles, California, who says she wrote this poem to get back at her mother, only to find that her mother loved the poem. Snip Your Hair I'll snip your hair Cut it all off until you look like a man I will replace your weight loss bars with bars to make you gain I will cut your credit cards in half I will shrink all your clothes Every trick in the book I will try I will give all your shoes to the dog I will do it all Crazy is where you will be driven Off a cliff you will want to jump Then when I am all done I will look at you with big doughy eyes And I will say I am sorry But I have my fingers crossed
Reprinted from "Untangled: Stories and Poems from the Women and Girls of WriteGirl," WriteGirl Publishers, 2006. Poem copyright (c) 2006 by WriteGirl Publishers and used by permission. Introduction copyright (c) 2006 by The Poetry Foundation. This column is made possible by the Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org) and supported by the UNL Department of English. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
