A Complicated History With Hair & The Sun Loves Me
A Complicated History With Hair
I once was a little black girl
Thick curls, tight kinked, sprinkle water they shrink
Think think think
How in the next 5 days can these 5 inch curls
Miraculously turn into full length swirls
Asian ginseng
Rosemary oil
Little black girls know the toil
My father and his razor
Head shaven
This little black girl paced down the street
As little kids snickered round her feet
My father and his razor
Head shaven
It sickened this little black girl
Each shave was a statement
That the strands of my hair
We're better dead on the hallway floor
Soon my mother starts braiding
In boxes we're tight tied
Turns of hair gasping for air
How I would squeal and tear
With each squeezing of tight hair
Hand over head as we lay into pillows
Tossing and turning
Little black girls know the burning
And yet the story starts overturning
Soon this little black girl starts relearning
Emancipated from feeling alienated
Slowly baking is a self-embracing
No longer a foe
Her hair retells her soul
Twists from Senegal
Implanted with rings of gold
Shells swimming in oceanbeds
Plaited into hair of Chestnut red
Oh She knows, how she knows
The beauty of every coil
Shrivelled or distressed
Frizzed like a nest
I'm still this little black girl
Days of turmoil
Days of feeling whole
Learning to nurture my fro
Slowly healing my soul
The Sun Loves Me
Melanin skin makes the sun rise
She gazes down with loving eyes
It's as if we’re synchronised
Feasting through flickering light
Hues of brown, dark and light
As it feasts
We feast
Beckoning vitamins we shall synthesis
I can't help but sympathise
With those who have never felt such heat
From loving eyes
75 degrees, I was a little child
Smouldering under natures warming cuddle
She yearns to nuzzle
Lena (she/her) is a nonsensical storyteller, exploring the faculties birthing love and hate through her fondness of all things poetic, sonic and visually palpitating. Deeply rooted within her youth & blackness, she is woven by her obsession with undressing the raw beauty off the bare self. Playing with the juxtaposition that strains from the duality of life, with its indescribable joys and continuous pains.
Website: lenasiewee.com
Instagram: @cinnamoncasket