paean to hair

by Lydia T. Liu 

in the morning after

Lady Horikawa wrote about her tangled hair

 

later the poet ordained as a nun

 

 

in Barcelona I saw a painting

by Miró

          Hair Pursued by 2 Planets

or

                                cabell perseguit per    dos

                                planetes

in Catalan,

 

and bought it for

the bathroom

 

through metaphor  I  wield   a power  I do not have

 

 

that weekend 

Gloria 

leaves

                            “sea waste”

on the beach

of Barceloneta

 

 

what is the meaning of

clean,

 

 

every now and then a stray eyelash interrupts

my processes

 

 

the other day you tried
to google
immanence
in the sun
there was no internet

 

I liked your hair long
and dark
and butter
and even
how it does not mingle
with mine

 

how it creeps up your neck

like wisteria
          , trained
to the walls of that summer house

 

then lower
than you can see 

 

slowly

 

strangling
its foundations

 

 

---

Lydia T. Liu is a poet, and a graduate student in computer science at University of California, Berkeley. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Berkeley Poetry Review, Frogpond, Indiana Review, Modern Haiku, and The Columbia Review.