We Don’t Need None by Tim Fab-Eme (Lucent Dreaming Issue 7)

Momma pulls out a can of kidee perm
pins my two-year-old sis down between her knees
and smears her head, complaining, strand after strand;

I join Angela-Davis murmuring we don’t need none; 
she says fine people have straight hair, smooth
as a mirror, not the thorns and thistles

we wear on our heads like hooded vultures,
points tiny white girls on a pop-up book
says we should be like them, beautiful, relaxed.
I told her that sodium hydroxide picks big

hoes and digs small graves on our scalps,
cut our follicles into tombstones, and writes epitaphs
on our lungs when we breathe it in;
she didn’t believe me, she says God’s white
and anything in his color has no sorrow.

And when am old enough to disown God
I’ll tell you why I wear no wigs
or weaves from a poor Indian in Tirupathi;
I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, 1786;
my mom’s Governor Miro’s concubine; we live in
Port Harcourt this 1st day of June, 9099.

Tim Fab-Eme experiments with poetic forms; he writes about exploitation, identity and the environment. His work has appeared in The Malahat Review, Pulp Magazine, New Welsh Review, The Fiddlehead; apt, Constellation, Foreign and Magma, etc. Tim often turns to reggae and jazz whenever the news weighs him down. He studied engineering at the Niger Delta University, and is presently pursuing a BA in English Studies at the University of Port Harcourt. Tim enjoys wandering in the mangroves and rainforests of the delta. He lives in Rivers.

Browse issue 7 in full.

Lucent Dreaming is an independent creative writing magazine publishing beautiful, imaginative and surreal short stories, poetry and artwork from emerging authors and artists worldwide. Our aim is to encourage creativity and to help writers reach publication! Subscribe to Lucent Dreaming now, support us on Patreon and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.