Sheila at the Salon
She’s always welcomed here,
released — to use her word —
from late-life atmosphere,
alone and deadly bored.
A woman at the desk —
I haven’t caught her name —
is all smiles. Sheila asks,
as always, for “the same.”
She likes the shampoo best:
to wander through the years,
her distant home, the mess
of family and tears.
They pass through often now —
her moods, the flag half-mast;
instant friends somehow,
now present, now the past.
Poetry, a preoccupation for many years, has taken over Donald Wheelock’s life after a career of teaching and composing concert music. Pulsebeat, Sparks of Calliope, THINK, Blue Unicorn, and many other journals have published his poems. His two full-length books, It’s Hard Enough to Fly and With Nothing but a Nod have been published by Kelsay Books and David Robert Books, respectively.
Pulsebeat Poetry Journal 