Parting

No more sessions in front of the mirror
each morning before setting off for the office.
No need, any more, for those delicate adjustments,
those deft flourishes of brush and comb,
trying to keep the line straight,
some strands this way, some that.
“Now that you’re retired,” my wife pronounced,
“what you need is a new image.”
Short hair, simply brushed forward.
A parting of the ways.
Parting with a parting of the ways.
Parting with my parting.