Curls
Location
I like the way they spiral
twirling and tickling my neck.
they get prettier when they drench
the floor and my skin.
They get wild and mischevous
breaking combs and little blue balls
tied together with string.
They give my mother grief
as she rakes her fingers
and wages war using chemical warfare and petroleum.
Those coils fight and struggle, sprouting out of my head in spikes,
angry of my betrayal, and defies me even greater.
I chopped them off.
They fell to the floor, decorating it
with black snow, black clumps of cotton.
My head feels strange and vevelty when I rub it.
They came back with a vengeance, making my fingers squeal
with glee when they feel such cotton silk strands.
They twist and trap my fingers, my combs, my thoughts.
They talk to me from their roots; they tell me where I came from.
Heritage, Culture, a Past many have overlooked.
My skin no longer defies me, only the roots and spiral coils that fan
out like a lion's mane, daring the world to question it.
They, those nerve-wracking silk tornadoes that damage yet create
a world so divine,
is an extension of me.