i think i want to stop dyeing my hair

eye-liner wing-beat heart
ripped teal stocking-thigh

what color is your hair now?

what kind of nature with bark
& woods-- 

what prickly weeds?

wash the onion grass before
you eat it--

cry orange & maroon
all over the bathroom sink--

play murder in the shower
this time with yourself--

whose blood was blue?

whose veins drained 
to dye your hair?

the fifteen year old 
on her knees praying to
god to make 
her cold & cobalt--

dragon knuckled--

he liked a fistful of hair
to grip like
horse reigns--

his love was a kind of
pigment-- 

raw scab & dry elbows--

i've had my hair dyed 
since i was fourteen &
you ask me what
my natural hair colors is--

i think of a river
mucky & brown-- shaken
by august down pour--

i wade in to my waist--

resist the urge
to let the current make
a stick of me--

no one teaches girls
what their hair is for
so i cut mine off--

hooves on asphalt--

a horse & buggy 
towards the meeting house
on sunday--

is your god wearing black?

is this a funeral for 
you or for color?

the calico cat under 
the shed--

head in the paint-brush sink--
burn of bleach--

the closest i've come
to setting my head on fire--

oh the phoenix

the brown-haired boy
phoenix watching himself

nature in the mirror--

i'm letting my hair
be brown 

& color is a ghost--

teal & indigo--

the eggplant hues 
of senior summer &
the orchid pink prom photos

still sauntering at 
the bottom of some drawer--

you colorful girl--

whose nature did you belong to?

oh what now 
is a boy with brown hair?

does he burn?

he's got rivers &

blue hydrangea petals
beneath his finger nails--

he grows in april when
the shower/rain 
is finally done--

standing in 
the fog of a bathroom mirror

the waist of 
a maple tree 

the way mud kisses shoes  

the sky left thumb prints--