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