Arching or waxing

for definition an’ perfection

 

An artistic rejection

of the female brow too

bushy or in

single

file

line

to fit the societal

construct of

beauty’s profile

 

Now, brows,  I pine for your

reappearance

 

I prepared for thinning

hair, buzzing

an’ cutting

to reveal

the perfect roundness

of my head  

 

And I was gleeful, relieved,

not to wax for heaven sakes

 

but if I had my

druthers, eyebrows,

you would

come back! so much’s

at stake.

 

How perplexing

that you have

left the landscape

of my face

 

Return, return before my

forehead burns

from the scorching heat

of glares

 

It is not that I care

that they stare

 

but that you dared

to leave me

an alien in the midst of

the rest of

the browed human race

 

I welcome you back, no

threading, I swear

Until you do, my loves,  I am forced

to draw awkward

portraits of you

 

Perhaps I’ll get you tattooed

           but wait– are my eyelashes leaving, too?

---

Andrea Murphy is a fifteen year educator, who is currently on hiatus.  She has taught English at both high school and community college. During this hiatus, she has decided to focus on her passion for creative writing and is developing as an emerging poet in the St. Mary’s of California MFA program. If asked what she plans to do with her degree, she would tell you that she intends to enjoy it.  She loves the lyrical expression of language and has made it her primary intention of study as she writes about family, legacy, illness, and blackness from a “womanist” perspective.  You can reach her on Twitter at @andream79107526.