After mass when we had been extra good all week
and didn’t do nothing to warrant
an untold amount of time in the confessional
mama and daddy would take the seven of us
four girls and three boys down to the lake
we was all pasabonne white enough that we didn’t have to crowd all up on other folk
like down at the sambo watering hole their congregation was humongous
I mean lines and lines of ink spots desperate to dip their toes just once
like lake water would rid them of their soot
some didn’t make it at all cause they had to be home before darkness set
onetime granddaddy drove us past there just to mock them girls and boys
trying to be fashionable in their mammy made swim suits
coming out of the water looking like nappy headed runaways
my sister Lauren was more like my daddy side they was real light skinned peoples
french some canadian but german mostly
except their hair wasn’t as gorgeous as momma’s people
with all that Indian and spanish but mostly french from our maternal grandmama Lauren was the only one of us look like daddy had spit her out
her hair texture musta been wrought on her
cause of daddy sinning over dice
it was his refusal to atone against them snake eyed demons
left Lauren’s head looking like a crow’s nest
those were mama’s words not mine every time she took years off her life
trying to make Lauren’s head presentable to the world
she’d grace us with the same sermon ending with
Lord Jesus why have you forsaken this child’s head
Lauren chile you bet not roll around with no black ass man
cause I ain’t claiming no moss headed grandbabies
water was Lauren’s kryptonite so daddy would tell her
just sit on the blanket regal and sexy like you marlene dietrich
daddy had a peculiar love affair with marlene dietrich’s hair it followed him to his grave daddy would go on chiding Lauren and when they
(white boys) interrogate you as to why you ain’t going near the water
tell them it’s cause you never learned to swim and besides this swimsuit too expensive to get wet and then you go back to posing up a storm swinging that sandy hair
like you trying to shake free the frizzle
yep Lauren had the sandy hair like daddy’s people while Clarke had red hair and freckles
the rest of us had jet black hair with curls so tight mama kissed them bobbing ringlets
in the mornings long before she pinched our cheeks
her way of acknowledging the arrival of a new morning
and god’s good graces bestowed upon our crowns
as one would imagine with hair like ours we could balance life in and out of the lake
sunning kicking sand being chased and caught by white suitors
who thought highly of our seditty trot when vying for our affection the white boys
would rough house like gladiators but even with her kinky tresses
Lauren always managed the good prospects cause she was the blonde
one time this tall blonde haired blue eyed hercules looking boy squat down next to
miss marlene hollywood and she giggling like a starlet all seductive speaking in that
french accent till I think she began to believe she was foreign through and through
that white boy convince her to go for a dip and we start gasping
Clarke screams hey Marlene don’t soak your brain being overly stupid
but she had to show us she didn’t need our curls to get tagged
so Lauren go in and come out ragged headed like Annie (the doll)
when that white boy realize what he was holding at the hips
he almost jumped out his skin then came all the investigating
White boy-what’s wrong with your hair it looks like…
well it looks like…
you ain’t no nigger is ya I mean you can’t be but your hair it’s…
Lauren- It’s frizz my hair frizzes easy I know it looks like a bird’s nest
my mama says it gets like a bird’s nest once it smell water is that the words you were searching for bird’s nest
White boy- Look I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or nothing
I just never seen nothing quite like that
and I’ve taken many girls into the water…
besides I hate them pasty niggers that’s how come I ask if you was one cause I know how they operate white niggers think cause they great great great great grandmammy give it up to their masters that make them white white as any real white person walking the streets
pasty niggers my papa warns the worse kind cause they quick to forget their place
quick to try and be something they can’t cause they blood still got a hint of nigger
and sure as the day is long they could drop a baby from their belly looking like it’s been dipped in tar with barbwire for hair that’s the word I was looking for barbwire
my pretty little barbwire barbie that’s your hair
but when I look at you I know you too sophisticated to pass besides with that accent you white
you looking at a boy who could spy a nigger perpetrating a mile away
couldn’t no blackymo be as white as you and steal my eye