Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Linda Saccoccio: Grit and Love


Grit and Love

Your black curly hair
was too dark
Your curls defiant
wiry springs that
recoiled in the fog
full, standing taller
than your confidence
small face
eyes like focused arrows
shaded under spirited locks
It was enough trouble
already
this shrub-like ebony halo
Not light, not straight
not preferred
Then year by year
white lines appeared
multiplied
turning this crown silver
In the mirror
In photos blanched in sunglow
curls obscured
unstoppable loss of blackness
Is it okay for a woman
to sport a silver cloud?
Are you fading into oblivion?
Where is the comfort in being alive?
Can you be saved by pigments?
Do you join the club?
Bond with women who color?
Will it improve?
Will it heighten the quality?
Are you serious?
Do they think so?
This new color in your hair?
This flattening of curls
This culture delivers
whatever you want
In a salon named Harlot
in Venice Beach
You name it
Sure you’re at their mercy
Sure you haven’t a clue
What do you want?
You pay with time
You pay with surrender
You pay big bucks
For needle straight hair
Glowing red brown
A sister of Raggedy Ann
Yet you are no doll
Your hair grows
determined as bamboo
Defying the promises of restored youth
truly an uphill climb
When once the black reigned sovereign
Now the glistening silver obstinate
as any weed
Reminds you life is maintenance
Beauty is a burden
And women whose roots don’t show
are either more fortunate than you
Or they bow to a
different goddess




Linda Saccoccio is a visual artist and writer with a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in NYC. She lives and works in CA, exhibiting painting in art fairs. Her inaugural book of paintings and poems is "Transitions and Translations", it is available at:


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