ROMANCE Poem: Secrets in the Morning, Early, by Christiana Ares-Christian

Inspired by Li-Young Lee’s “Early in the Morning”

Before the paperboy
delivers the news,
Before the sun has broken the horizon,
Before the coffee machine starts
the morning brew–

I sit on the bed,
run the ebony comb
through my matted hair,
and listen to it snap through kinks.

I pull and tug, comb
and coax, pin and fix,
placate my mane
with warm hair grease.

My lover stirs, still exhausted from nighttime tumbles.
If I could, I would rejoin her—
let her fingers get caught in my hair
as I soothe her out of sleep.
But I know I will wait till evening,
after we draw the curtains,
and give in to the secrets
our mothers don’t know.