Skin Debris as Microscopic Human Trace

The Suit


I am locked in a very expensive suit
old elegant and enduring
Only my hair has been able to get free
but someone has been leaving
their dandruff in it
Now I will tell you
all there is to know about optimism
Each day in hubcap mirror
in soup reflection
in other people's spectacles
I check my hair
for an army of Alpinists
for Indian rope trick masters
for tangled aviators
for dove and albatross
for insect suicides
for abominable snowmen
I check my hair
for aerialists of every kind
Dedicated as an automatic elevator
I comb my hair possibilities
I stick my neck out
I lean illegally from locomotive windows
and only for the barber
do I wear a hat



Leonard Cohen Selected Poems 1956-1968