Mama’s Hair

Mama’s Hair, pastels and chalk, 14x17

 She lies on the couch, propping

her head with a pillow, tossing her hair,

a million points splaying like nerves over the arm.

I start to brush through the thicket with the grain—

the ends first, carefully teasing them out

so not to stir up her aching tangled inside.

She aimlessly stares at the ceiling, perhaps

studying the cracks until her eyelids softly fold.

Her eyes beneath her lids quiver like two bowstrings.

She moves from this world to the other, and

her shadow disappears, revealing the secret of light,

a rusty pearl, and the songbird.

I brush, noticing her narrow lips, the line

of her nose and jawbone; her thinness,

how her face comes together without even a flaw.

She is not dirt, not stone, not ash, not dust,

not grave, but a soft plum given its time.

The mild moon rises slowly out from inside her

to rest on her forehead. The straightened wind wanders

in through the open window whisking up her hair.

Her hunger for loving attention is disguised in there.

Jim Stoner is a multi-media/disciplinary artist, veteran, and award-winning educator. Jim earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy, a master's in professional writing, and a master's in interdisciplinary studies. He is a former Senior Lecturer of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Jim is the founder of The Healing Arts Blog and the podcast Spirituality Unplugged. Jim has published more than 35 artworks and poems in twenty journals. He is the author of a forthcoming book of poetry and artworks, Iterations of the Boy, and a book of poems, Dialectic of Life and Death.