Bob Hickoc's Insomnia Diary

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In his poem “The bald truth,” which addresses his receding hairline, Hicok’s humor and sentimentality really come through. The poem opens, “My hair went on a diet of its own accord. / Rogaine is the extent of my vanity.” These first two lines perfectly encompass the general attitude of the entire collection. The issue of hair loss is an ordinary concern, something most men face, an issue that most people can, in some way, relate to. There is self-deprecating humor in the idea of one’s hair ‘going on a diet,’ a humor which also threads itself throughout the rest of the poems in the book. He writes that using Rogaine was “fun / treating my head with fertilizer / as if it were a phrenologist’s lawn.” The poem then moves through an examination of the brain and the responsibilities of each hemisphere, finally coming to rest on a sweet and sentimental ending: “The real compensation’s / having no choice meeting the mirror / but accepting that tomorrow / will be different than today. / And greeting my wife, / not wondering, as pretty men must, / if I’m kissed for my soul or face, / to never doubt, as I become invisible, / that I’m seen by love.” The end of this poem is so dynamic and wonderful, and so representative of the sentiments echoed throughout the rest of the book. The issue of hair loss is turned around, seen as not a detriment but an affirmation, and the speaker relishes in his relationship with his wife, knowing that there is love there, hair or no hair.