Unspoken Word
November 20, 2021
Letting It All Down

There are women in the world with long hair
who like to put it up,
twirl it and stack it and swirl it
high on top of their heads,
clamped and clipped,
held, sometimes, in place, with long sticks or pins
or multi-colored bands that come five to a pack,
or maybe, on a Sunday afternoon, just a simple red scarf.
It takes many shapes, their hair,
a bun, occasionally, tightly wound and worn
just before a formal affair,
perhaps a concert in the drawing room
or, on a more casual day,
a kind of waterfall splashing just for fun,
strands of silky hair going this way and that.
The reasons, if you can call them that,
are more than many,
perhaps it is a summer day
and the back of their neck is way too hot
or maybe it's time for a new look,
a subtle shift of personality,
here in this world where time is passing.
I really don't have a clue,
me being of an entirely different species,
and yet, without a doubt, there is a glorious moment
amidst all of the changes that happen
at least once in the grand opera of our lives
when the woman lets down her hair,
letting it fall to the place it can fall no further from,
nothing propping it up,
nothing holding it in place,
no style except the one she was born with,
wind playing with each strand
or, if the air just happens to be still (as we all long to be),
simply laying there, at rest,
done with absolutely everything,
nothing on her list
watching, for what seems to be forever,
a few birds, in the downdraft,
gliding.

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at November 20, 2021 11:30 AM

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“I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry.”
— John Cage

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