Today's poem is READING MURAKAMI AT THE HAIRDRESSER'S by Kathleen Ellis. It is read by Gibson Fay-LeBlanc.
READING MURAKAMI AT THE HAIRDRESSER'S
It's not so much that Japanese culture
is so much like ours
but that we're so much like
the characters in Murakami's stories.
In one story, the hero recalls his life
as a runaway teenager.:
I lived in Ichikawa. I never got along with my parents
and hated school, so I stole some money
from my folks and took off.
I squirm in the cutting chair at the hairdresser's,
close Kafka on the Shore, and nearly doze off
from the clipping and buzzing.
In a nearby chair, Kristy is telling her hairdresser,
who's chattier than mine, that she's had it
with living at home in Bangor and plans
to run off with her boyfriend. The same one?
her hairdresser wants to know. Nope,
I'm over him, a real loser.
Meanwhile Murakami's finishing up with his hero's
backstory of escape: So I quit high school,
went to trade school and became a hairdresser.
Behind me Kristy's boasting that once she skips town,
she'll become a hairdresser. I like fiddling
with people's hair. And I'm a good listener!
Suddenly, I'm reading the two as one, as Kafka would,
as Murakami always trips us up with a plot that doesn't
respect its elders. Here we go, I suspect,
and take up Kafka on the Shore again, betting on both
the teenager and Kristy, the fuzzy connect
in a world where we recognize
characters who act like us and are about to speak.
They will have reckless lives
and beautiful hair.