M. M. PORTER
I don’t care much for the hairbrush,
though I suppose I should.
Mama says brushin’ your hair everyday is manners.
But manners is a way to a husband,
and I ain’t rushin’ toward no weddin’ alter, see,
so I really can’t care about the hairbrush.
It bein’ the reason I might be looked at
by some small town man
that don’t know ‘bout the outside of a huntin’ shack.
That said, I could look mighty fine, combin’ back these locks
of red, to somethin’ less than a lion’s mane.
Seein’ as Mama thinks lions are an ugly sort:
she goes ahead and calls me homeless child
anytime I throw on sweatpants. Ain’t that just sad?
So I say, Mama, don’t you know comfort?
And she cries, Annabell, if I had known comfort
don’t you think I wouldn’ta brushed my hair?
You see, it's the hairbrush that's stolen Mama’s comfort.
All yanking knots, and pullin’ back, and tight, slick, buns.
So really, I’m doin’ myself a favor,
not pickin’ that dang brush up.
Even the horses out back, they get their hair brushed,
and shown, just to be sold away.
So you can’t tell me that my hairbrush is doin’ me anythin’
but harm. But my manners ya see is to always listen to Mama,
and for some reason Mama won’t let me go to school
no more without me pickin’ up that: wife makin’,
lion tamin’, comfort stealin’, horse sellin’, piece of plastic.
M. M. Porter is attending Ohio University to pursue her PhD in English with an emphasis in Poetry. She is a graduate of the MFA poetry program at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro where she served as a poetry editor fo The Greensboro Review. She has been published or has poems forthcoming in Epiphany, The Shore, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Originally from Michigan, you can find her work at mm-porter.com.
Author Index: M.M. Porter
Twisted River Review ~ Issue 0: Editor’s Release