now i love my hair

now i love my hair
mama used to fry it
said it needed "fixin'"
 'cause the summer humidity
made my thick fine stuff "go back" easily
my sister's coil pattern was tighter
but it held a pressin' better
mine was a fight to stay "fixed"
like it was an entity itself
and that entity fought back

i thought,
something's just not right
i was about ten or eleven
saw a picture of cicely tyson
wearing her nappy hair proudly
how could she do that

at the ebony fashion fair
a beautiful black model
strutting the runway
with her natural look
something called out to me
the way GOD made you, too
is good
and beautiful

in junior high
late sixties
i went natural
as it was back then
with my "'fro"
my school was all black
and a few girls stared
like i was out of my mind

later
getting a job
i blended in
and burned my scalp
and cut my hair
yet in dreams
when i looked in the dream mirrors
my hair was coiled
and fell in lioness locks
about my shoulders
was GOD talking
saying
"ALL that I made
IS good"

later
i looked in the real mirror
as in my dreams it fell to my shoulders
in lioness locks
it flourished in humid weather
i no longer feared fog and misty days
fearing it "going back"
and needing "fixin'"
B'cause being "back"
is where it's s'posed to be
no fixin' what ain't broken
just embracing
and loving
and lavishing in
what is

draping over my shoulders
coiling down my back
reaching toward my hips
a place it would never have been free to travel
if it had been enslaved by
fake taming
harsh straightening

now i love my hair

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Ms. Kathy's Kids Blog: http://mskathyskids.blogspot.com/