My Mother Combs My Hair by Chithra Banerjee Divakaruni

          My Mother Combs My Hair

                    - Chithra Banerjee Divakaruni

Poem lines:

The room is full

Of the scent of crushed

Hibiscus

My mother's breath

Our positions are of

childhood,

I kneeling on the floor

She cross-legged

On the chair behind

She works the comb

Through permed stands

Rough as dry seaweed

I can read regret in her fingers

Untangling snarls

Rubbing red jebakusum oil

Into the brittle ends.

When she was my age

Her hair reached her knees

Fell in a thick black rush

Beyond the edges

Of old photographs. In one

My father was daringly

Covered her hand with his

And make her smile

At their marriage she told

Me

Because of her hair

They did not ask for a dowry

This afternoon I wait

Far the old comments,

How you've ruined your

Hair,

This plaits like a lizard's tail

Or if you don't take better

Care,

Of it, you'll never yet married.

But the braiding is done,

Each strand,

In it's neat place shining.

The Comb put away.

I turn to her, to the grey

Snaking in at the temples

The cracks growing

At the edge of her eyes

Since father left

We hold the silence.

Tight between us

Like a love wire

Like a stripe of gold

Torn from a wedding

Brocade.