folding my ear lobe
to avoid nicking tender skin
as the clippers travel
across my scalp
crop hum he concentrates blind in the right eye limited central vision in the left
i like my buzzcuts
everything must be in its
place where did you put the tin opener? predictable you’ve left the kitchen drawer open again my dyspraxia his sight loss like a sitcom (perhaps i should write one) the laundry basket left in the middle of the room
a trip hazard after i got distracted (again)
all done he says i sweep the tiled bathroom floor
lint-roll my neck the chair cushion

UK based neurodivergent writer Jane Ayres completed a Creative Writing MA at the University of Kent in 2019 aged 57. Her work is in Lighthouse, Streetcake, The North, Acropolis Journal, Selcouth Station, Kissing Dynamite, (mac)ro(mic), ubu, Crow of Minerva, Beir Bua Journal, Ample Remains, Sledgehammer and The Forge. As one of the winners of the 2021 Laurence Sterne Prize, her first collection edible will be published by Beir Bua Press in April 2022. Jane tweets at https://twitter.com/workingwords50