I wrote this:
21 years after we learned
that nappy hair didn’t make you pretty
and the boys didn’t like it either,
someone is still pulling my coarse strands
to see how long it is
brown girls learn to love flat irons
that kill coils
brown women behind me in the mirror
tugging at my stubborn kink
to see if it’ll flow past my shoulder
4 years after my best friend
bent her face in pain and said sadly,
I look like an African
she’s behind me in the mirror,
pulling pieces of my hair
to see if it flows past the shoulder
seeing if it hangs there,
but it doesn’t, just curls back and
bounces out of her fingers
wanting freedom
brown women in the mirror,
wishing for hair past shoulders
pulling mine to comparison
hating the African that’ll always scream through
their faces
cuz the boys didn’t want the bald headed girls
and mine gives her a mission
to get longer
-Nijla Mu’min
© 2011
Partly, in response to this:
Speak! Thank you!