Unspun Gold
Sometimes not my mother's daughter
In my grandmother’s kitchen my mother told me,
"You will never get a boyfriend
with your hair parted down the middle."
Her cigarette burned down as I burned down to a pile
of inferiority.
Clearly, naively, innocently, I listened.
I heeded the woman
whose golden spun hair was frozen in Aqua Net since 1984
that my romantic endeavors were reliant on where my hair
fell from the top of my head —
my not-gold, chocolate swirling curls —
and how delicately my hair sat atop my shoulders,
and how I should "probably brush out the curls because they look messy."
You look messy.
Sloppy.
Knotty.
Untamed. Unspun.
For years, I concerned myself with the aesthetics of my coils
rather than the intention of my character and the intentions that fell
from the bottom of my heart
and how loud my heart beat on my sleeve
and how unimportant my hair was but I could not see —
Could not see past my hair no matter how I lightened her,
past what I needed to be for my mother
in order to be loved by another.
That I was raised to be thin
to diet
to move
to try
to critique what I was
and not who I am. Unspun
To be thin and pretty God forbid I be a fat child and love my middle part —
Because we need to be thin and pretty.
My mother was thin and pretty
and blonde and gold.
And tall.
And had sky-high hair and box dye status.
As an adult I could be fat and pretty but not pretty fat and ugly
and only after I found someone to love my hair placed delicately to the side
and lightened gold by the sun and lemon juice, and finally spun,
could I be fat and pretty or ugly and thin
because at least I’d be thin.
I could let myself go only after
I placed my intentions and the messy heart on my sleeve
delicately to the side to make way for the gold.
I could unravel like my mother did and stand behind the kitchen island
and treat it as a podium and tell my daughter,
her granddaughter
You must change before you are loved.
You must be gilded.
So I walked the line of my middle part of
black and white —
Of judgment —
Of hope someone would fall in love
with my placement and one day I woke up too many years later and realized
This. Was. Dumb.
My hair coils and curls and speaks for itself
and spoke for me before I found my voice.
Dark and deep,
not gold, not gilded.
My body moves and grows and shrinks like my mane
and I am ever-changing
and always speaking.
Some days I may feel thin and pretty
or fat and ugly and now instead of dwelling
I release my hair
I appreciate the entropy
and whoever can love that entropy will love everything
I’ve come to love about myself and see the gold inside.
About the Creator
Kaitlin Oster
Professional writer.
Owner - Shadow Work Consulting, LLC
David Lynch MFA Program for Screenwriting with MIU, graduation 2023
Writing collaboration or work, speaking engagements, interviews - [email protected]
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