october 27
from a day book

The start of losing her / was knowing what could be missed:
-- Shane Rhodes

the name for what is left behind,
the curls in my hair if cut too short

what the weight will not hold

my daughters, also, too curly
for its own abundance

on muggy days, when we both
curse our hair from wherever

we are, & she my name too,
the one who gave it to her

as a body never wants
what it already has: spending how much

to get straightened, cut
& coloured

my daughter in red; where we
have come too say, her mother

& i, isnt that just
so much like her

she, who was once so much smaller

she, who was once just us
combined