3 posts tagged “hair”

The Middle School Girls

Addie loves Michelle

She does not love Victoria

Victoria loves Lois

who also does not love Addie

A girl has to belong

to someone

or she is no one

wandering the jungle of girls

who comb each others hair

like monkeys picking nits

They laugh, slightly strangling

none too confident of their place

in the grooming line

wary of being bumped

by a more attractive

smarter girl

one who perhaps

doesn't care so much

or at least seems not to

wearing a shield of indifference

and hairspray

Later, she will hold the lighter

close to her stiff bangs

to show she doesn't care

Her face will be fine

She'll hold a funeral for her hair

She'll move on

Lucy Simpson

Seattle

5/2/2008

a woman's glory

light slowly fades

in the green room

close warmth

Mama sits

on bed's edge

pale as the drowned

I watch her

brush her hair

one hundred strokes

she struggles to rise

to this ritual

of beautification

the blue brush moves

through auburn

burning fire

in dying sun

I love her hair

her only beauty

only flame left

on a near-corpse's pate

an evening prayer

in the closed room's

green chapel

of dust and stink

and nearness

I do not want

would run

on skinny legs

if not for loyalty

that bone in my throat

one hundred strokes

each day

to make it shine

and I, the only spectator

Lucy Simpson

Seattle

1/2008

a woman's glory

I watch her

brush her hair

one hundred strokes

she is faithful to this

only this

not bathing

long after loss

of love and mind

she brushes her hair

one hundred strokes

each day

to make it shine

Lucy Simpson

Seattle

1/2008