Everyone remembers her haircut, 
lion’s mane sheared like lamb’s wool, 
but few remember why. She stood 
on the busy street corner, broke up with 
the boy she loved. I can’t change 
who I am—I don’t want to, she told him.

I’d never said that to a boy. I said, 
You’re right; that band is stupid. I said, 
I’ll stop watching soap operas. I said,  
I don’t know; what do you think? I said, 
Please don’t leave me. I said, 
I can be anyone you want me to be.  

She walked away, crossed the street, 
plopped into the plastic swivel chair.  
Her bare feet pointed and flexed over the 
metal bar, beside the pile of curls.  
Her eyes blinked in the mirror. She 
marveled at what she could leave behind. 

Melissa Fite Johnson, a high school English teacher, is the author of A Crooked Door Cut into the Sky, winner of the 2017 Vella Chapbook Award (Paper Nautilus Press, 2018). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Pleiades, Broadsided Press, Whale Road Review, and elsewhere. Find her online at melissafitejohnson.com