Dark & Lovely
I grew up with my head in the kitchen sink,
shoulders wet with the powdered perfume of Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo.
Soft-scented water seeped down my back and across my shoulders,
I fought to avoid the sudded crowning.
My grandmama fought the thicket of my fresh curls. In the thicket,
she waded with an old hot comb and plastic barrettes.
A hot comb on Ultra Sheen smells like the beginning of a fish fry, grease shiny and new.
When I walk into the beauty shop, everyone’s head is a different meal cooking in the same oil.
At the beauty shop, rows of women burn from their roots, sharp and synthetic —
relaxers deodorize the history from your scalp.
The FDA recently decided to ban chemical relaxers because of health concerns.
My parents never let me get a perm.
My mama had a perm. And my aunt. And my grandmama.
I grew up with my head in the kitchen sink.
shoulders wet with the powdered perfume of Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo.
Soft-scented water seeped down my back and across my shoulders,
I fought to avoid the sudded crowning.
My grandmama fought the thicket of my fresh curls. In the thicket,
she waded with an old hot comb and plastic barrettes.
A hot comb on Ultra Sheen smells like the beginning of a fish fry, grease shiny and new.
When I walk into the beauty shop, everyone’s head is a different meal cooking in the same oil.
At the beauty shop, rows of women burn from their roots, sharp and synthetic —
relaxers deodorize the history from your scalp.
The FDA recently decided to ban chemical relaxers because of health concerns.
My parents never let me get a perm.
My mama had a perm. And my aunt. And my grandmama.
I grew up with my head in the kitchen sink.
March 2025
Sabrina Spence is an event coordinator, poet, and theatre-lover from Memphis. Currently, she is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Memphis where she works for the Pinch, a Literary Journal. Her poems have been published in Beyond Words, NonBinary Review, Papeachu Review, Torch, and Waxing & Waning. Sabrina has performed spoken word for ALSAC/St. Jude, served as an Interactive Poet at Dixon Gallery and Gardens, and was named a finalist for Palette Poetry's 2023 Resistance and Resilience Prize. She holds a Bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis.
Art: Claire Tang, Pushing Up Daisies. Oil on canvas.