American Life in Poetry: Column 128 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 American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Reprinted from "Untangled: Stories & Poems from the Women & Girls of WriteGirl," WriteGirl Publishers, 2006. Poem copyright © 2006 by WriteGirl Publishers and used by permission. Introduction copyright © 2006 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
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