Afro puff diva
pineapple headed me
as I settle into my sheets
preparing to call forth slumber
I am trapped, in the mysterious
cool gaze of my shadow
and the unexpected depth therein
even that of my hair
its turns and twists reformatted
flat, gray, yet intriguing
even forced into two-dimensionalism
its beauty doth not perish
PS: I really should sleep now...
~ Nika
i can hardly picture you waking up with gray, two-dimensional hair. but it's fun trying to imagine it. very interesting and well-written. i didn't miss rhyming and hardly missed punctuation. thanks for sharing. get your beauty rest, by all means. bri :)
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
I love the image THE MYSTERIOUS COOL GAZE OF MY SHADOW. The shadow suggests so many poetic possibilities, that of a second self, the human soul, the dark impulses we all carry, etc. But I've never encountered the shadow as a judge of who we are, and not a sympathetic judge either! I found and read this poem after reading AFRO HAIR 101. The poems complement each other, although AFRO HAIR 101 has a wider range of meaning. This one is a sharply observed moment in everyday life, you as everywoman. But AFRO HAIR 101 addresses WITH ADMIRABLE COMMITMENT self-worth and cultural identity. Both poems are necessary to express the wholeness of being, and I appreciate their perceptiveness.