Long Cornrows Poems

I raced through my chores, braided my hair in cornrows
Meticulously washed my body, daub the back of my ears
The insides of my elbow, and my wrist, with my then cheap perfume
There my pulse beat, no...

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Fox Hunting

She turns tail to snake through the dust,
parting orderly heads of corn,
breathing heat and eating dark
On her way to escape—she hopes—
from the fox chasing her (a rabbit).
She knows this place and can’t be lost

in...

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The hair sits on my head like it's a throne
And I'm a heir to the heritage
Generations of my people passed this 
crown on to me 
You may call it nappy but don't sleep on
my royalty
I'm...

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If our hair was on trial
And it was called to testify
And tell the truth
Of what the world put it through

It tells the stories
Of all the hairstyles
That it was

It starts with when it was cornrows
It takes...

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The Lip Gloss question of the day is "What do I know about you?"
Can't really say -- everyday, I see something new.
It could be hat, wig, cornrows, or weave,
Don't matter which, I gotta have me...

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marauding foxes  
mutilating fruit
minutemen mischief-makers
marching upon us

pick our pockets
laugh at our loss
   
“No mangoes for sale”

maimed, mangled, mashed
sweetness shamed  
to death
ants and gnats feasting
off illicit mango chutney

sly scamps
evade 
like Bolt-pace
their intake...

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I once heard the whisper of falling snow,
saw a spark in the eye of a coal-black crow,
felt the power and awe of a swift river's flow,
the older I get, the less I know.

My hair was...

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Look thou up again for the rain clouds gather
Thou hast seeded with vapor of tears 
Art thou soon weary gazing upon heaven?
And thy hope eaten up by needless cares?

Come thee away from whence I call...

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My hair fills the circumference of itself
And takes up space with little help
It goes the only way it knows
In tightly bound cornrows 

In church the preacher talks about my hair
To entertain everyone there
Saying 'comb out...

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