Tara Betts

The Cut

A chair spins you straight into the mirror’s view.
The stylist shears inches of hair, tenderly prunes
your hair into a cap. Think Joan of Arc, 80s pop star
when you have felt what once twisted around neck.
Shoulders become a cape where sweat and wind lifts
heat away from the skin. Fingers lift the hair away
where there is something like freedom from weight,
the comb, and the blowdryer. Wake up feeling like
this head is a light, feathery glory that should know
fingers lingering and wrapping around its almost curls.

 


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Tara Betts is the author of Break the Habit (Trio House Press, 2016) and Arc & Hue (Willow Books, 2009). She is also one of the co-editors of The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives About Being Mixed Race in the 21st Century (2Leaf Press, 2017). Her work has appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Essence, Nylon, and numerous anthologies. Betts holds a PhD in English from Binghamton University and a MFA in Creative Writing from New England College. She teaches at University of Illinois-Chicago and serves as part of the MFA faculty at Chicago State University.