Courtney Conrad
The salon was a field of sunflowers
with good posture. Black leather chairs
padded with sofa pillows for hairstyles
spanning three-plus hours. Sundays
were mother-daughter days, melanated faces
radiated as heads leaned back into basins
for scalp massages. Under the blow dryer,
seeds cracked to speak of troublesome children,
marital affairs and church prophecies.
I dreamt of taking you here.
On what would have been your third birthday, I returned
to the salon with your grandmother, in my fist
a lock of your hair the nurse gave me. All the women
drooped in their chairs as my hair was shaved clean.
This poem was originally commissioned by Apples and Snakes.
Courtney Conrad is a Jamaican poet. Her debut pamphlet I Am Evidence is published by Bloodaxe Books. She is a winner of the Eric Gregory Award, Michael Marks Award, Bridport Prize Young Writers Award and Mslexia Women’s Pamphlet Prize. She is a Cave Canem Fellow.
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