Winter Outside Salon de Coiffure Gilles

by Peter Richardson

Amid scraps of breath
he stops to brace himself
against gusts, and notes,
through shop glass, a knot
of orange and black cats
curled in a fleece-lined box.

Stopgap ploys might
see him through till spring
if only he could mimic
the cats’ quietist approach
and simplify, simplify
his paraphernalia of needs.

— from Juniper Volume 5, Issue 1