Women Washing Their Hair

They have painted and sung
 the women washing their hair,
 and the plaits and strands in the sun,
 and the golden combs
 and the combs of elephant tusks
 and the combs of buffalo horn and hoof.

 The sun has been good to women,
 drying their heads of hair
 as they stooped and shook their shoulders
 and framed their faces with copper
 and framed their eyes with dusk or chestnut.

 The rain has been good to women.
 If the rain should forget,
 if the rain left off for a year—
 the heads of women would wither,
 the copper, the dusk and chestnuts, go.

 They have painted and sung
 the women washing their hair—
 reckon the sun and rain in, too.

Published in Smoke and Steel

Tags:

Any corrections or public domain poems I should have here? Email me at poems (at) this domain.