SHARPENED COIN by Thaddeus Rutkowski

My barber, who had fled the Soviet bloc,
tells me how street criminals work in Moscow.
“They sharpen a coin,” he says,
“and they walk up to you
with the coin in their pocket.”

The barber puts his hand in his pocket
and wiggles his fingers.
Taking small steps, he approaches me
with his hand still hidden.

“They slice the strap of your purse,” he says,
“or they just cut the side, so your stuff spills out.”

He approaches my head from the back,
tilts my scalp toward him,
and scrapes my skin with a razor.
I hope it’s a razor, not a sharpened coin

Thaddeus Rutkowski is the author of nine books, most recently Tracks in Snow (Finishing Line Press). He teaches at Medgar Evers College/City University of New York and at a YMCA. He received a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship and a Best Small Fictions award.