LOVE Poem: Softened by Fire, by Allison Zhang

Tightly woven bamboo floors and eyes
of Shanxi women at the hairdresser
as flat irons annealed a girl into glass
thinned and weakened by the heat.

The girl screeches at her hair chopped.
Village women snatched her childhood dress shoes
mandated khaki trousers
exchanging small for large each turning year.
Her pursed smile forced as they cackle:
A woman deserves nothing more!

To that hairdresser she returned
her fingers running beyond the tips of shortened hair.
Crystal eyes in shards
back bent from working fields.

I tell Mother I hate being a girl
crossed legs and flowery dresses.
Mother’s silt-tinted, brittle hands run through my long hair
her fingers wrap tight around the curling iron
Says I was once a girl in Shanxi…

Author: poetryfest

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