Not 1937 but 1972

For Olds… for Bruck

We aren’t shaped things like
our moms’ hairdos

So round so golden so smooth
like this guy’s ego

He says
better not
have that cheeseburger
better not
have that chocolate malted —

And your thighs chafe like hers…
so what —
so, skinny is Holocaust rated.

*

Be as big as a bouffant sister
and make the babies.

Don’t have em
in the privy.

Don’t count on your nosy neighbor
to not be… too busy —

Marry Tom Dick and Harry with
the beiged and plastic penises
spark ‘em all!  dammit — mother

Make me into a baby
from the sweat on his lip
to the drip
of sperm

*

We are not yet hermaphrodites
but we will be soon
I had to go and say it

Mother, daughter, let your hair
go flat. Oiled
unwashed hippy. Gypsy,
smoke some ganja — be Unorthodox

I won’t tell them unless you abort me.
Be a Jew — be you

*

I feel safe today,
good Protestants
using up all the food and water

These days
keep hearts beating
because then can

Even if they aren’t sure they
want to —

So that I can say, thank you, mother
in all of our imagined communities

In every war, in every era
women’s hair and her presentation of it — matters.

 

Photo Credit: H o l l y. Flickr via Compfight cc